The Girl Who Lived and Loved year 2
by Rose. L. Potter
Summary: Rose Potter's adventure at Hogwarts began with being sorted into Slytherin, protecting the Sorcerers Stone and coming face to face with her parents murderer. So after a very eventful first year, Rose is now finally returning to Hogwarts. But something or someone seems determined to keep her away, and now a new mystery and adventure is about to unfold. Good Slytherin Femharry
1. Chapter 1

**So I wasnt sure after a rude comment who I should put down as the characters. So I decided that since this was originally a femharry story which it still really is, but the fact that Rose characters diverges pretty far off of Harry character in the books, that I will both put the characters as Harry and OC. I also from the beginning state in the summary that this is a femharry story, you have been warned, so if you click on this story not realizing that the lead character is a representation of a female Harry Potter that is your own fault and you should not get mad at me if you cant read or know what Femharry means though I think it's quite obvious. **

**I cant promise to please every reader, because I am not perfect and there are many different opinions and preferences out their regarding gender bending Harry. But this is my story, I started to write it because enjoyed it and still do. I also wish that you will enjoy reading it, but as I already said, I cant promise you that you will because I don't know you all personally.  
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**I ask ahead of time that those who do not have accounts or just wish to be anonymous by not signing in that you do not troll me with comments for too nasty and mean to be considered proper critism and that your reviews will be deleted immediately. I'm not saying that all I want is positive, because negative critism comes with being a writer, but if you would simply please think before you write and refrain from going to far and to not call me any nasty curse words. I do have feelings.  
But if you do have your critism, negative or positive, please go ahead and review in a mature way that can help improve my story rather then just attacking me. I look forward to reading everyone reviews.  
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**Also a big thank you to my Beta Maggie who without this story would not have made it to the second year or even half way though the first. Also thank you to those who read the first year and review with nothing but love, you guys kept me going and let me know that my story was worth it all.  
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**And now for the first chapter of the second year!  
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The Worst Birthday_Ever_

It wasn't the first time that an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive. In fact they had become very frequent after Rose had returned from her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

It seemed that Vernon had once again been woken in the middle of the night by a loud hooting noise that came from Rose's room. From her owl, Hedwig.

"This is the third time this week I've been woken far too early in the morning… I'm telling you, girl, if you can't control that bloody bird it will have to go!" he near roared, and Rose had to wipe some spittle from her face after pouring her uncle his usual cup of coffee.

"But she's _bored_. She can't help it when she's so used to flying around outside. If you would just allow me to let her out at night, at least then-"

"Do I look stupid to you?" Rose was wise enough not to answer that question.

'_He's so disgusting__,__' _she thought as she noticed a piece of egg dangling from her walrus of an uncle's mustache.

"I know exactly what will happen if that owl is let out," he said, throwing a dark look towards his wife, Petunia.

Rose tried to argue, but her words were drowned out by a long, loud belch from her piglet of a cousin, Dudley. She flinched at the sound.

Dudley was so _large _that his bottom drooped over the side of his chair. "I want more bacon," he said.

"There's more in frying pan, sweetums," Aunt Petunia told him, turning her eyes on her son with a look of adoration.

"Pass the frying pan… _freak__._"

Rose's jaw went rigid as she controlled her temper and magic. Across from his son, Vernon grinned proudly as Petunia pretended not to hear or see anything as she put the milk away.

"You've forgotten to say the magic word," Rose gritted out through clenched teeth irritably. And suddenly, she felt a hard hit to her face as she was slapped hard, landing back on the floor, the coffee pot spilling over her lap as she fell and gave a painful cry as her thighs and stomach were burned. Standing over her, Vernon looked down purple-faced, a vein visibly throbbing in his temple.

"Vernon!" Petunia cried, moving forwards to help her niece, but Vernon held out an arm, stopping her.

"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT SAYING THE 'M' WORD IN OUR HOUSE?" he hollered down at her, pounding a fist down on the table, the plates and utensils clattering from the force.

"I only meant that he should say '_please_'." But her words went unheard as he continued to shout, looking ready to kick her where she lay and Rose didn't even have her wand to defend herself against him. All her things, her spell books, her robes, cauldron, and broom were locked in the cupboard under the stairs where she used to sleep.

"I WARNED YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOUR ABNORMALITY UNDER THIS ROOF!"

The coffee on her dress started to cool, but the pain of the steaming hot liquid did not ease the burning against her skin and she was afraid she would now not only have a bruise across her face, but burn scars on her abdomen and legs. She sent a pleading look at her pale aunt who was trying to get past her uncle's arm to get to her. Finally, even she seemed to reach her limit with her husband and gathered what little courage she had as she pushed her husband's beefy arm out of the way to rush to her niece's side, patting her stained dress with a cold wet cloth.

"Enough, Vernon, I spoke to you about raising your hand against her and especially hitting her face. She is a _girl_, and a _child_!" Petunia said as she helped her niece to her feet.

"She's a _freak_, no better then an_ animal,_ and if I want I will treat her as such!"

Petunia ignored her husband. She needed to get Rose under cool water. The glare that the usually weak-willed Petunia sent Vernon was enough to make him sit back down as she took Rose out and upstairs to the bathroom. "Take off your clothes and get in the tub, the water needs to be cold so brace yourself and don't scrub or you'll irritate your burns. I'll get you a fresh set of clothes." And then Petunia was leaving the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

With a sigh, Rose watched the cold water fill the tub and started to take off her dress, hissing as she peeled the fabric from her legs. With a deep breath she stole her nerves and stepped into the water and shivered before slowly lowering her self into the tub, hissing again as the cold water came into contact with her heated red flesh before it started to ease the pain.

'_I wish I could make a potion to heal me rather __than__ having to make do with Muggle medicine__,__' _Rose thought irritably as she leaned back against the tub, letting her head fall back as she blinked away the tears.

She wanted to go back to Hogwarts. If it was terrible for the Dursleys having her back it was even worse for her. Her only friend in this horrible house was Hedwig. She hated it. She missed Hogwarts, missed her comfortable four-poster bed that felt like heaven beneath her back, the delicious food that she lacked at the Dursleys, her classes, visiting Hagrid every Friday afternoon for tea, and she especially missed Quidditch. She wanted to be back in the sky as much as Hedwig did. This house was her cage.

She fiddled with the golden key around her neck that she'd caught and kept as a '_token_' (as Dumbledore called it) from her adventure down in the deepest dungeons of the castle trying to protect the Sorceress Stone. The gold glimmered in the water, matching the shine of the bracelet that had been left to her by her father with the Potter family crest. She hadn't taken it off since she first put it on last Christmas.

What she wouldn't do to have her things. But her uncle had locked them away the moment she had walked into the door the day she returned from Hogwarts. Of course the Dursleys wouldn't care if she couldn't do any of her summer homework, or lost her place on her House Quidditch team because she wasn't able to practice all summer. It was torture for Rose.

'_Not only did that pig hit me again and __make me burn my legs__, but it's my birthday and even Aunt Petunia forgot about it, though I shouldn't be surprised. So far this is the worst birthday ever!' _Rose thought bitterly just before her aunt walked back in with a roll of bandages and a pretty floral dress for her to change into.

When Rose had returned, her aunt had put away all of her wizard's robes and clothes in the cupboard with the rest of Rose's things, and the drawers of her dresser were filled with brand new dresses, skirts and blouses waiting for her in her room. Rose had no idea how her uncle had allowed her aunt to spend so much on her, but for all she knew it could have been out of her aunt's own spending money and her uncle didn't care enough to notice that her clothes actually fit her now. At least Rose didn't have to suffer uncomfortable and itchy secondhand clothes anymore.

"I'm sorry," was all the woman said after Rose had gotten out of the tub, and helped her niece to bandage her legs.

Looking in the mirror, Rose saw that the mark from Uncle Vernon's slap was already turning purple. When her aunt was done, Rose let the skirt of her dress fall to cover her injured legs, and let her aunt towel dry her hair before Rose combed through it with her fingers. When she finished she followed Petunia back downstairs obediently.

"Girl, clean this mess on the floor immediately!"

Without complaint, Rose heeded her uncle's order and went to the kitchen to get a dirty cloth to clean up the now cold coffee from the floor. Being careful of her new clean dress, Rose started her cleaning, placing the now empty coffee pot on the table, as she'd deal with it after tending to the floor. And as she scrubbed the floor like Cinderella, she didn't hope for a prince with a glass slipper to come and steal her away, but of an owl with a letter to Hogwarts. As long as she thought of Hogwarts and her friends, it made living with her Muggle relatives and taking her uncle's abuse a bit easier, yet no less painful.

Once she had finished with the floor, Rose took the coffee pot into the kitchen to wash with the rest of the dirty dishes from that morning. As she scrubbed at the grime on one of the plates, Uncle Vernon suddenly cleared his throat with a sense of importance that had Rose rolling her eyes, something she seemed to do a lot when it came to the Dursleys. "Now, as we all know, today is a very important day. This is the day I make the biggest deal of my career," said Uncle Vernon.

'_Ah yes, now I remember, the stupid dinner party tonight. A party __for__ which I'm preparing all the food so Aunt Petunia doesn't have to lift a finger except for the cake she insist on baking and decorating herself,' _Rose thought bitterly as she scrubbed at the plate harder_._

For a complete two weeks, to Rose's irritation, her uncle had not talked of anything other than his having invited over a rich builder and his wife to dinner, hoping that he would get a huge order from him (Uncle Vernon worked for a company that made drills). Rose thought it was all terribly boring.

"I think we should run through the schedule one more time," he said to his family who was now listening attentively.

"We should all be in our positions at eight o'clock, when we will be expecting the Mason's to arrive… Petunia, you'll be-?"

"In the lounge, waiting to welcome them graciously to our home," Aunt Petunia answered promptly.

"Very good, and you, Dudley?"

"I'll be waiting to open the door!" Rose didn't look to see the ridiculous face her cousin was making as he responded. "'May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?'" He recited his lines as if he were in a play, the three of them insistent upon having it all prepared and rehearsed before the guests arrived.

"Oh, they'll just _love _him!" cried Aunt Petunia, doting over her son in such a ludicrous way it made Rose's empty stomach churn upsettingly.

"Excellent, Dudley," Vernon praised his boy, before Rose felt his eyes move to her before he spoke again. "And _you_?" he asked her.

"I'll be in my bedroom making no noise and pretending I don't exist," she answered tonelessly, not even giving him the respect of looking at him when she replied as she continued on with the dishes.

"Exactly," he said, as if wishing she really didn't exist. Rose was sure that the happiest days of his life had been when she was at Hogwarts and he didn't need to bother with her anymore.

"I will lead them into the lounge, introduce you, Petunia, and pour them drinks. At eight fifteen-"

"I'll announce dinner," said Petunia.

'_The dinner _I_ cooked__,__' _Rose added mentally in annoyance, though not daring to speak her thoughts aloud.

"And, Dudley, you'll say-"

"May I take you to the dining room, Mrs. Mason?" Looking over her shoulder, Rose saw her cousin offer his fat arm to an invisible woman.

"My perfect little gentleman!" squealed Aunt Petunia.

And _you?_" Uncle Vernon said to Rose again, his voice cold and vicious as she put a dry dish away before answering.

"I'll be in my room, making no noise and pretending I don't exist," Rose said in the same toneless voice as before.

"Precisely. Now we should aim to get in a few good compliments at dinner. Petunia, any ideas?" he asked his wife.

"'Vernon tells me you're a _wonderful_ golfer, Mr. Mason…' 'You _must_ tell me where you bought your dress, Mrs. Mason,'" said Petunia, and Rose wanted to gag.

"Perfect… Dudley?" Vernon asked his son.

"How about this – 'We had to write an essay about our hero at school, Mr. Mason, and _I _wrote about _you._'" It was too much for Rose and Petunia in different ways. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and hugged her son while Rose ducked underneath the counter in the guise of getting something to hide her laughter.

"And you, girl?" Uncle Vernon asked Rose as she stood back up once she thought she was under control, though she was trying extra hard to keep a straight face on this time around.

"I'll be in my room, making no noise and pretending I don't exist," she said, trying not to sigh.

"Too right, you will. The Masons don't know about you and it's going to _stay _that way," her uncle said in a threatening tone that earned him a glare from his wife. "When dinner's over, you take Mrs. Mason back to the lounge for coffee, Petunia, and I'll bring the subject up about drills," he said. "With any luck, I'll have the deal signed and sealed before the news at ten. We'll be shopping for a vacation home in Majorca this time tomorrow," he said, almost giddy at the idea. It didn't matter all that much to Rose, even as she listened while trying not to scratch at her burns – no matter where they went the Dursleys still wouldn't like her anymore than they did there at Privet Drive. "Now that's out of the way, I'm off to pick out the dinner jackets for Dudley and me. And _you_." Her uncle suddenly rounded on her with a snarl. "You'd better make this the best damned meal you've ever cooked, or the you will pay the consequences if the Masons aren't satisfied with their dinner," he warned her before leaving the house.

With a sigh, Rose started to prepare what needed to be done and cooked first before anything else, working herself to a sweat over a hot stove for a bunch of ungrateful Muggles. Taking out all her frustration in her cooking, Rose sang under her breath as she made the perfect meal that not even her fat lard of an uncle could complain about. "Happy birthday to me…happy birthday to me…" she sang, miserable. Not a card and not a present, not even a single letter from any of her friends.

More than anything Rose missed her friends, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Tracey Davis. But apparently they didn't miss her as much as she missed them. Not a single one of them had written to her all summer. If Rose didn't have Hedwig, she was sure that the feelings of loneliness she was suffering would be so much worse then they already were. A number of times Rose had come close to unlocking Hedwig's cage with magic to send her with a letter to either one of her three friends, but the risk was too great. Underage witches and wizards weren't allowed to use magic outside of school, though Rose hadn't told the Dursleys that. It was the only thing she could use to strike terror into them, and that terror kept them from locking her under the cramped cupboard again.

At first when she'd arrived back she'd had the most wonderfully entertaining time, muttering gibberish and watching Dudley waddle his way out of a room on his fat legs as quick as he could away from her. But after a while, the silence from her friends had dulled the joy she'd got out of scaring her cousin.

If only she could get one letter, just one letter from anyone, even if it was just from Hogwarts. At this point Rose would even be happy with a letter from Draco Malfoy, just so she knew that it hadn't all just been a dream. It had been such an amazing year, both good and bad. After all, at the very end of her last term Rose had come face to face with none other then Lord Voldemort himself, the _thing _that killed her parents – for she refused to call him a man of any sort. And although he had been just a ruin of his former self, he was still terrifying, still cunning and still determined to regain his power.

Rose still had nightmares, and there was no Tracey at the Dursleys to comfort her whenever she woke from one. She had barely slipped from Voldemort's clutches a second time, and sometimes in the middle of the night she swore she could feel Quirrell's hands around her neck again and she would jump from her bed in terror as she clawed at invisible arms, soaked in a cold sweat, with a scream lodged in her throat, as livid red eyes stared, murderous, into her own.

"You really thought I'd forgotten your birthday, didn't you?" Turning with a start from what she was doing, Rose stared at her sheepish-looking aunt, before noticing the wrapped box in her hand that had a pink bow on top. "Go ahead, open it," Petunia said as she placed the box on the countertop between them. Checking first to make sure that none of the food would burn; Rose carefully pulled off the bow and peeled away the wrapping paper before opening the box. Inside was a beautiful headband, decorated on one side with gold butterflies, dark painted leaves, and fake pearls, and white and green crystal beads that branched off on twisted gold wire. It was beautiful. "I saw it in the window of a pawn shop. It was rather cheap for being as pretty as it is. Didn't spend much at all on it, really," she said to her neice.

Putting it on, it fit Rose's head as perfect as a crown, pushing her hair behind her ears and leaving her bangs to fall freely over her brow as it always had, covering her scar just the way Rose liked it to. "Thank you, Aunt Petunia," Rose said halfheartedly with a smile as she trashed the wrappings and bow.

"Happy birthday, Rose." With that said, Petunia returned to her cleaning and Rose to her cooking without another word spoken between them again until later that evening.

"Are you done yet? the Masons will be arriving any minute now!" Aunt Petunia called in a panic.

Rose was just putting the pudding she had made on top of the fridge, the loin of roast pork she had been cooking still sizzling to perfection in the oven while the cake her aunt had prepared sat proudly on top of the counter. "All done!" she said, checking the roast one last time before reminding her aunt when to turn the stove off before dinner, admiring her aunt's salmon-pink cocktail dress.

"Good. Now take your supper to your room, you don't have anytime to eat it at the table now."

She was then handed a plate with nothing but two slices of bread and lump of cheese before she was being pushed out of the kitchen towards the stairs. As she passed the door to the living room, Rose caught a glimpse of her uncle and cousin in bow ties and dinner jackets. Rose had only just gotten to the top of the stairs when the doorbell rang and Uncle Vernon appeared at the bottom of the stairs looking furious as he reminded her not to make a sound while she was in her room.

Rose walked to her bedroom on her tiptoes, planning to eat her 'meal'(if that was what they dared to call it after the one she had made for them) and then maybe she would read one of her mum's Muggle novels that she had found in the shoe box of her mother's things that she had left behind before her death. _The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe_ seemed very interesting. Slipping into her room, Rose nearly dropped her plate when her eyes landed on _it._

TBC

**I checked the publishing date for when The Chronicles of Narnia came out and it was before Rose was born.**

**I look forward to everyone reviews, they both help to encourage and inspire me to write a better story and help me improve my skill every time.  
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	2. Chapter 2

**Someone asked why i changed Ginny's looks and it's because I always imagined her to have curly hair like her mother. Also it's to make sure that she and Rose don't look to much alike, hair wise and stuff.**

**Also I want you to remember that Child abuse is not uncommon is certain generations. Vernon seems to have grown up and raised to believe that as a man he is the law and can do as he pleases. And because he doesn't see Rose as a human being, beating her is no more than kicking around a poor, lowly animal. I wouldn't be surprised if he hit Petunia if she disrespected him, but she's always been on his side. Vernon is a monster of a human being, do you shouldn't put it past him to physcally abuse Rose. I'm surprised he didn't do worse to Harry.  
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**Also thank you everyone so much for reviewing the first chapter.  
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Dobby's Warning

Rose had to bite her tongue to stop herself from shouting out her shock and surprise. On her bed was a creature with large, bat-like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls. And as they just stared at each other, Rose could hear Dudley downstairs offer to take the Mason's coats just as he'd practiced.

'_What on earth-?'_

Suddenly the little creature jumped off her bed to the floor in front of her and bowed low, so low in fact that its long nose touched the carpet. Rose noticed that it was wearing nothing but what looked like an old pillowcase with rips for arms and leg-holes. She couldn't help but pity its tattered appearance, reminding her of herself when she used to wear nothing but hand-me-downs that were terribly uncomfortable and didn't fit properly.

"Um, hello," Rose greeted the creature nervously, crab walking around the it and setting her plate on top of her desk, and she briefly noticed the way the creature glanced at her tiny meal with a hunger that rivaled her own.

"Rose Potter!" it said in a high-pitched voice that had Rose worried her uncle would hear it from downstairs. "So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, Miss… Such an honor it is…" the creature continued, and it was like walking into the Leaky Cauldron for the first time again, hearing the way it spoke to her.

"Th-thank you. You said your name was, Dobby, did you? And I'm sorry if this may sound rude, but _what _exactly are you?" she asked as she took a seat in her desk chair, pulling her dress over her knees.

"Yes, Miss. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf," said the creature.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Dobby. But I'm afraid right now isn't exactly the greatest time for a house-elf to be in my bedroom. Is there a particular reason you're here?" she asked quickly, her eyes going back and forth between the door and Dobby as she listened carefully for any sign from downstairs that her uncle had heard them.

"Oh, yes, Miss. Dobby has come to tell you, Miss… well, it's rather difficult to say, Miss… Dobby wonders where to begin…" Dobby said earnestly, seeming to have a bit of trouble coming out with the words.

"Would you like to sit down, maybe?" Rose offers the elf a seat politely, motioning to her bed. And thinking she was doing the kind thing, it was to say Rose was very much startled when Dobby, to her horror, burst into tears – very _noisy _tears that could get her in trouble.

"_S-sit down!?" _the little elf wailed and Rose thought she might have heard the voices downstairs falter for a moment.

"Oh no, that's not good. Shh, please stop crying, it's all right. I didn't mean to upset or offend you," Rose whispered, trying to soothe the creature, not sure exactly how to comfort a house-elf. She was very tempted to cover its hands with her mouth to get it to shut up.

"Offend Dobby! No, you could never offend Dobby… It's just that Dobby has never been asked to sit down before like an _equal__,_" the elf choked and sniffled.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Rose said, offering him a seat on her bed again and watched, pleased, as the creature climbed up. Dobby almost looked like a large, hideous doll, now slightly calmer as his big eyes looked at her with a teary adoration.

"Would you like a tissue?" she asked, plucking one from her desk and holding it out for Dobby who took it with large, trembling hands as if he was sure it was a dream and it would disappear the moment he touched it. "It doesn't seem that you've met many decent witches and wizards," Rose said lightly in a joking manner, trying to cheer the elf up.

"No, I haven't," he answered her with a smile and nervous, seeming to relax before suddenly leaping up and started to bang his head against the wall.

'_I have to quiet him or he'll be heard__.__' _Self preservation to not get hit again by her uncle set in, knowing how furious he would be, and she reached out to grab Dobby. Wrapping her hands around the elf she grabbed hold and pulled him away from the wall and into her lap, stopping himself from hurting himself and making any more noise.

"Please, you have to be quiet, Dobby, or my uncle will hurt me. Do you want me to get hurt?" she asked him seriously, and Dobby shook his head, her hand covering his mouth, and her thoughts purely selfish and the burns on her legs started to itch. "Now maybe you can tell me why you tried to hit your head against my wall?" Rose said, releasing the house-elf.

"Dobby had to punish himself, Miss. Dobby almost spoke ill of his family," Dobby said, going cross-eyed as he spoke for some reason.

"Your family?" asked Rose curiously.

"The wizard family Dobby serves, Miss… Dobby is a house-elf, who is bound to serve one family forever…" he told her.

"And does your family know you're here?" she asked.

"Oh, no, Miss… Dobby will have to punish himself most severely for coming to see you, Miss. Dobby will have to shut his ears in the oven door for this. If they ever knew, Miss-" Rose paled as she listened.

"Won't they notice you shutting your ears in the oven?" she asked, horrified by his self-abuse.

"Dobby doubts it, Miss. Dobby is always having to punish himself for something, Miss. They let Dobby get on with it, Miss, and sometimes they reminds me to do extra punishments…" Rose touched the bruise darkening on her cheek. It was terrible enough the way her uncle treated her, and the constant torment Dudley provided.

"And I thought the way the Dursleys treat me was horrible. It looks like me and you are a lot alike… But why don't you leave? …I would leave the Dursleys in a heartbeat," she told the house-elf, just imagining a better life, with better people, magical people.

"Can't any one help you? Can't I help you? Just tell me what to do and I'll do it." The moment she offered she regretted even speaking when Dobby crumbled into a wailing mess again. "Please, please be quiet. Don't you remember what I told you would happen to me? If the Dursleys hear and find out about you-"

"Rose Potter asks if she can help Dobby… Dobby has heard of your greatness, Miss, bit of your kindness, Dobby never knew…" Rose felt flushed in her face and knew that her cheeks must be burning red.

"Honestly, most of what you've probably heard about my '_greatness'_ is most likely all rubbish. But I do work very hard to be good, and do my best… I'm really nothing special," she said to him bashfully.

"Rose Potter is so humble and modest," said Dobby, as his orb-like eyes seemed to glow as he stared upon her. "Rose Potter speaks not of her triumph over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." Rose's lips were tight her fists were clenched in her lap as he spoke of her parents murderer. Then Dobby was leaning in towards Rose, and she can see her reflection in green eyes darker then hers. "Dobby heard that Rose Potter escaped _yet again_," Dobby spoke in a hoarse whisper. Rose nodded and Dobby's big eyes began to shine even brighter with tears.

"Oh, Miss," he said sympathetically, wiping at the corner of his teary eyes with the filthy pillowcase he was wearing. "Rose Potter is valiant and bold! She has braved so many dangers already! But Dobby has come to protect Rose Potter, to warn her, even if Dobby _does _have to shut his ears in the oven door…_Rose Potter must not go back to Hogwarts_."

It felt as if her entire world had stopped with those words, and her heart lurched violently into her throat. A silence fell between the house-elf and the young witch, a silence only broken by the clinks and chinks of knives and forks and the rumble of her uncle's voice as they dined on the meal she made but would never get to taste. Confusion, fear, anger, these emotions seemed to choke her and she struggled to breathe before finally she found her voice. "W-what?" Rose stammered, her face a contorted mask of all the emotions she was feeling. "But I have to go back, I can't stay here!" she spoke in a frantic whisper. "Term starts on September the first. Thinking about returning is the only thing that's been keeping me going with these _Muggles. _You don't know what it's like here with _them_. I don't _belong_ here. I belong in your world – at Hogwarts!"

"No, no, no," Dobby squeaked, shaking his head so hard that his ears flapped. "Rose Potter must stay where she is safe. She is too great, too _good_ to lose. If Rose Potter goes back to Hogwarts, she will be in mortal danger," he told her with a frightening sincerity that for a moment had Rose thinking she may really be in danger.

"What do you mean?" she asked, still startled by his words.

"There is a plot, Rose Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year," Dobby whispered to her, trembling in his pillowcase. "Dobby has known it for months, Miss. Rose Potter must not put herself in peril. She is too important, Miss!" Dobby continued to speak desperately.

'_I'd__ rather face harm at Hogwarts then harm here__,__' _Rose thought stubbornly.

"What kind of terrible things? If you've known for months, then who's plotting them?" she asked at once and Dobby made a strange choking sound before banging his head frantically against the wall again. "All right! I understand, you can't tell me! Now please stop!" Rose cried, grabbing the house-elf by the arms to stop him. And as she pulled the elf back from the wall and forced him to sit down again a very unpleasant and terrifying thought struck her.

"Dobby, this doesn't have anything to with You-Know-Who, does it? And you can shake or nod… you don't need to speak if you don't want to," Rose asked, adding the last bit hastily as she kept a grip on Dobby to keep him still. Slowly Dobby shook his head. Rose found herself letting out a sigh of relief. She was just starting to get over her last encounter with Voldemort.

"Then who?" she asked, and Dobby's eyes seemed to go even wider as if trying to give Rose some hint. However Rose was completely at a loss at what he was trying to get across. "I just can't seem to think of anyone else who would have a chance of making anything horrible happen at Hogwarts," said Rose.

Rose's professor, and her mum's former best friend before her death, Severus Snape had been cleared of the suspicion she'd once had about him. And Quirrell was dead. She couldn't think of anybody else in the school that would have the chance to do anything remotely evil or terrible. "Besides, Dumbledore is as Hogwarts – You know who Dumbledore is, don't you?" She hoped that the elf would, as apparently Dumbledore was a household name in the Wizarding world.

Dobby bowed his head in acknowledgment of the name, "Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Dobby knows this, Miss. Dobby has heard Dumbledore's powers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the very height of his strength. But, Miss-" And here his voice dropped to an urgent whisper, "-there are powers that Dumbledore doesn't… powers no decent wizard…" He struggled with the words, and before she could stop him this time he jumped on her desk, knocking over her cheese and bread onto the floor as he seized her desk lamp and started beating himself on the head with it, letting out earsplitting yelps and Rose's eyes grew wide as she noticed the silence that had fallen downstairs.

Biting her lip, she listened as her uncle's elephant feet creaked the stairs beneath his weight as he made his way up and into the hall, calling loud enough that those down stairs would hear, "Dudley must have left his television on again, the little tyke!"

"Quick! Get in the closet and stay there!" hissed Rose, grabbing the elf by the front of his pillowcase and tossing him a bit harshly into her closet and shutting the door on him, before sitting on her bed and grabbing a book she had dropped on the floor earlier to make it look like she had been reading quietly all this time. The door handle turned and Rose held her breath.

"What the _devil _is going on up here?" said Uncle Vernon, speaking through gritted teeth as he entered her room, putting his face horribly close to hers as she laid her book down in her lap, trying to look innocent. Before she could lie that she hadn't done anything she was gripped by her shoulder and pulled to her onto her feet.

"You've just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke… One more sound and you'll wish you were never born, girl!" He shook her hard, spittle flying from his mouth to land on her cheek as her head flung back and forth from the momentum so hard that her neck gave a little crack before he pushed her back to the bed and stomped out of the room.

On her bed, Rose sat shaking and whimpering like a kicked puppy. As she touched her arms where her uncle had grabbed her, she had little doubt bruises would bloom. Keeping her tears at bay, Rose didn't even look up as she heard the squeak of her closet door as Dobby came out. "Do you see now? Do you understand what it's like here for me? I can't even say the word magic without being hit or threatened," she whimpered. "I have to go back to Hogwarts! I'm much safer there than I am here. Hogwarts is my _home_! It's the only place I have friends – well, I _think _I have friends," she finished unsurely.

"Friends who don't even _write _to Rose Potter?" Dobby asked her slyly and Rose frowned.

"How do _you _know my friends haven't been writing to me?" she asked with well placed suspicion, watching as Dobby shuffled his feet, refusing to meet her eyes.

"Rose Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby did it for-"

"_Have you been stopping my letters? How dare you!" _Rose barely kept herself from raising her voice and yelling.

"Dobby has them right here, Miss," said the elf as he stepped nimbly out of Rose's reach, her green eyes burning furiously behind her glasses, and pulled out a thick wad of envelopes from the inside of the pillowcase he was wearing.

'_So they didn't forget about me,' _Rose thought as she made out Hermione's neat writing, Ron's scrawl, Tracey's pretty cursive, along Draco's strong script and even the chicken scratch of the Hogwarts game keeper and her friend, Hagrid.

"Rose Potter mustn't be angry… Dobby hoped… if Rose Potter thought her friends had forgotten her… Rose Potter might not want to go back to school, Miss…" Rose was too far gone to even hear what Dobby was saying to her, all of her focus was on the stack of letters that were meant for her.

"Give me my letters, Dobby," Rose spoke in a strained tone of voice, her hand outstretched with her palm up, waiting impatiently for Dobby to hand them over.

"Rose Potter will have them, Miss, if she gives Dobby her word that she will not return to Hogwarts. Ah, Miss, this is a danger you must not face! Say you won't go back, Miss," he said, daring to try and compromise.

"No. Now give me my friends' letters!" Rose said, her patience breaking.

"Then Rose Potter leaves Dobby with no choice," the elf said to her sadly and Rose was confused as to what he meant.

'_What is he going to do?' _she thought with worry. Before she could move, Dobby darted to the door, opened it, and sprinted down the stairs.

Rose didn't hesitate to chase after him. With a twisting stomach and dry mouth, she continued after him, trying not to make a sound. Jumping the last six steps, Rose landed with cat-like grace and quietness on the carpet at the bottom of the stairs. Holding her breath, Rose looked around for Dobby.

"…Tell Petunia that very funny story about those American plumbers, Mr. Mason. She's been dying to hear…" Rose heard her Uncle Vernon say from the dining room. Creeping to the kitchen, Rose felt her heart stop in her chest, not breathing as she saw her Aunt Petunia's masterpiece of a cake floating high up near the ceiling. On top of one of the cupboards in the corner crouched Dobby.

"Please, Dobby don't… they'll kill me…" And she felt like her uncle really would, as tears shone in her eyes as she begged with genuine fear in her heart.

"Rose Potter must say she will not go back to school-"

"Dobby…please…"

"Say it, Miss-" Rose looked from the cake to where she heard Mr. Mason telling her aunt his story in the kitchen. If Dobby dropped the cake, the Dursleys would never let her go back. No matter what happened she wasn't going back to Hogwarts this year. There was no winning in this scenario. Unless-

'_I'll lie to him_.'What could she possibly lose if she agreed not to go back but didn't mean it? She was a Slytherin, she was more cunning than to let a few words stand in her way. She would give Dobby what he wanted and also save her own skin from being flayed by her uncle within an inch of her life.

"I won't go back… I promise," she croaked.

Dobby gave her a relieved look and smiled, placing the cake back on its pedestal and then Dobby vanished. With the disaster averted, but then suddenly there was a loud scream from Mrs. Mason as a large barn owl swooped through the dining room window and flew through the kitchen to drop the letter it had been holding in front of her before swooping back out. She heard Mr. Mason explain that his wife was deathly afraid of birds.

Grabbing the letter, Rose ran back upstairs to the safety of her room. She saved the cake, but it was up to her uncle and aunt to fix things after the owl had made a visit. She had a feeling she would be receiving the blame and another violent visit from her uncle. When she was again inside her room she saw that her letters had been returned, sitting on her bed.

She didn't know which letters to open first. The one from her friends were the ones that the barn owl had just delivered to her. Seeing as there was no rush to read her friends' letters as she would not be able to reply and let Hedwig out to deliver, she decided on the one that seemed to ooze bad news for her.

She picked up the spilled cheese and bread. It was clean enough except for the cheese which she would have to throw out but the bread could be saved, and she brushed it off before putting it back on the plate and placing it back on her desk. Her stomach growled loudly. And with a sigh and look of disgust Rose took a bite out of the corner of one the slices of bread. As she chewed she started to open up the letter.

_Dear Miss. Potter,_

_We have received intelligence that a Hover Charm was used at your place of residence this evening at twelve minutes past nine. As you know, underage witches and wizards are not permitted to perform spells outside school, and further spell work on your part may lead to expulsion from said school (Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, paragraph C)._

_We would also ask you to remember that any magical activity risks notice by members of the non-magical community (Muggles) __and__ is a serious offence under section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlock's Statute of Secrecy._

_Enjoy your holidays!_

_Yours sincerely,_

_Mafalda Hopkirk_

_IMPROPER USE OF MAGIC OFFICE_

_Ministy of Magic._

Rose put the letter on her desk and swallowed. She seethed at the thought that Dobby could have gotten her expelled if he had done any more magic other than hovering the cake. She would have to be careful about her own magic and hope that Dobby had trusted in her earlier promise not to go back to Hogwarts and wouldn't come back.

Downstairs, it sounded as if her uncle had made good recovery from the owl incident as she heard Mrs. Mason compliment her aunt on the delicious cake she had made, the one that not too long ago, Dobby had threatened to destroy. She wondered whether if her uncle was able to close the deal, he would forget about the owl and not decide to come up and pay her a visit. She could only dream she supposed.

Putting the letter from the Ministry in the drawer of her desk, Rose grabbed the thick stack of letters from her friends and placed them in her lap as she untied the string holding them all together. As she shifted through them, she wondered which to read first. She decided to start from the top of the pile and work her way through it.

The first letter was from Ron, asking how she was, telling of the trouble the twins had been brewing at home and how his sister Ginny couldn't seem to stop talking about her, Rose. He ended the letter by asking if she wanted to come and visit, and that she was welcome over any time.

The next was from Hermione that asked politely how her holidays were, and spoke of her own vacationing with her parents and how she had already begun her studying for the new school year and recommending she do the same.

Then there was Tracey.

_Dear Rose,_

_How are you? It must be awful living with those __Muggle__ relatives of yours. I could never imagine living __amongst__ them like you do, it must be absolute torture and my heart goes out to you for __bearing__ with it._

_My offer still stands for you to spend the summer with my family and me. I've already __spoken__ with my mother and father and they would be happy to welcome you into our home for the __holidays__. Oh, we would have so much fun together__ and__ it would be so great. I think my mother is getting a bit annoyed that I __won't__ stop talking about what we would do if you came to stay with us._

_I honestly miss you, so hurry and write back as quick as you can so we can start planning what __to__ do together when you visit us._

_Tracey._

Rose had wanted nothing more than to spend the summer with Tracey and her family and was thrilled when she had been invited at the end of the school year. She had gotten her hopes up that she wouldn't have to spend the entire summer with the Dursleys. But when her uncle had locked away all her things and refused to allow her to let out Hedwig, all her hopes of spending the summer with her best friend were deflated – and then completely destroyed when she did not receive any of the letters her friends had promised to send.

Draco's letter was pretty much rubbing in the great time he was having during the summer, and listing all the things he had been doing and the places he and his family had visited on holiday. Rose was pretty sure he was either just trying to show off, or wanted to make her feel bad that she wasn't with him having so much fun. But in the end a few little words sent her mind whirling.

"_It would be much more fun if you were here__,__" _is written near the end of the letter. Rose never knew what to think of Draco. He always seemed to have these two sides to him. And sometimes she got the feeling when she saw him, that he was actually very lonely. Crabbe and Goyle were more his goons than they were his friends.

'_If only Draco wasn't so rude and mean we could be friends__,__' _Rose thought with a sigh as she put his letter to the side with the others that she had read.

The letters continued from her friends, all asking why she hadn't wrote back, and if she was all right. They were all worried about her. Rose only paused her reading to listen as Mr. and Mrs. Mason thanked the Dursleys for the wonderful evening. It seemed that all had gone well as the couple was shown out. There was also a genuine cheerfulness she heard in her uncle's voice that gave her a good feeling that he had landed the deal he had so wanted.

She heard the door open and close before the entire house seemed to fall into a cold silence that had Rose nervous and on edge. She put her hands together, intertwining her fingers as she closed her eyes tight almost in prayer as she waited for something, anything. Not even she could predict how her uncle would act now that she knew the evening had gone well for him.

_'Please, please let him forget about the owl. Let him be in a good enough mood to leave me be for the rest of the night__,__' _Rose thought hard, her eyes closed tight. But her prayer would not be answered.

"POTTER!"

Rose winced, and quickly hurried to hide her letters as she listened to the pounding sound of his footsteps as he ran up the stairs and towards her room. Behind him she could hear her aunt call out to her husband. Standing, Rose faced the door and used her courage to steel herself as she clenched her jaw and waited for what was to come. The burns on her legs itched and the bruises on her cheek and arms began to feel sore as she shook with fear.

Her door was thrown open to reveal her Uncle Vernon; his teeth bared, looking much like a rabid bulldog. Rose could barely see past him to her Aunt Petunia behind him as she tried to pull him back by his shirt, trying to stop him. She yelled for him not to do it, to leave Rose alone, frightened for her niece as she saw just how furious her husband was. "Vernon, don't! She's been in her room the entire time!" she shouted, trying to pull him back out of the room, but he only shoved her none too gently off of him and out of the room, shutting the door behind him before turning on Rose.

"I know it was you who called that bloody owl into this house, you and your freakiness. You were trying to sabotage my deal weren't you? I told you I would make you wish you were never born!" And then he brought a hand across her face hard, wailing on her as her aunt pounded on the door, begging for her husband not to hurt Rose as she listened to the girl's pleads and cries for him to stop.

"I'm going to lock you up, girl... You're never going back to that school... never! ...You'll rot here!" He laughed like a maniac when he was done with her, kicking her one last time in the stomach and knocking the air from her lungs, coughing as she struggled to breathe while her body already started to grow black and blue.

"I hate you, I hate all of you... and one day I will get my revenge, I will make you pay!" Rose spoke in a broken whisper filled with pure loathing as she laid a crumbled and trembling mess on the floor, her words unheard beneath the loud laughter of her uncle as he left her room. Locking her in.

She heard his footsteps walking away, the sobs of her aunt muffled as the woman sat of the other side of the door apologizing not to Rose, but to her dead sister Lily, begging for forgiveness that Rose knew she would never receive. Rose didn't even have the strength to crawl into her bed that night, barely able to move and she fell asleep on the floor, sleep being the only peace from the pain of her beaten body.

The next morning, her uncle paid a man to fit bars on her window while Vernon himself fitted a cat-flap in her bedroom door, so that small amounts of food could be pushed inside three times a day. They only let Rose out to use the bathroom in the morning and evening. Otherwise she was locked away in her room around the clock. It was sick and degrading. They were treating her like a wild, caged animal.

A week later Uncle Vernon showed no signs of relenting, and he was the only one with the key to her room. There was no escape for her, and not even her aunt could help her. She really _was_ going to rot in her room. All she could do was sit curled up on her bed every day, her body in pain, waiting to go the bathroom and for her food, watching with blank eyes as the sun set and rose beyond the bars of her window.

_'What's the point in using magic to get me out of this room if Hogwarts will just expel me for doing so? Where would I even go?' _Rose thought miserably, her stomach growling violently with hunger. Rose had tried to threaten them with magic she couldn't use, but even that hadn't seemed to sway her uncle who was filled with a feeling of power and invincibility after beating her black and blue so badly that she could barely move for two days afterwards.

Dobby hadn't saved her from the horrible things that would be happening at Hogwarts, he hadn't saved her or protected her at all, just left her to a worse fate with the Dursleys.

_'Despicable __Muggles__. At this rate I'm going to starve to death__,__' _Rose thought weakly with malice, feeling lightheaded.

The cat-flap rattled and Aunt Petunia's hand appeared, pushing in bowl of canned soup into her room and Rose didn't hesitate to pounce on it, starving and hungry. She didn't care if it was stone cold and drank it in one gulp, little dribbles going down her chin that she quickly licked up.

"I'm so sorry, Rose, I wish I could get you out, I really do."

Rose didn't hear her aunt's words as she stood and crossed the room, walking with a limp, to Hedwig's cage. The owl was her only friend in this place of despair. Picking the soggy vegetables from the bottom of the bowl, Rose dropped them into Hedwig's empty food tray, and the bird her feathers and turned her golden eyes onto her owner with a look of disgust.

"No point in turning your beak up at it you little snob... I'm sorry but it's all we've got," she told the owl grimly. Looking into Rose's green eyes, Hedwig hesitated before she started to nibble at what she was given. "That's a good girl," Rose told Hedwig. Turning from the cage she placed the empty bowl back near the cat-flap and crawled back atop her bed, somehow feeling even hungrier then she had been before the cold soup.

Rose wondered if she survived the next four weeks, what would happen when she didn't arrive at Hogwarts. Would someone be sent to come and check on her, to see why she had not come back? Would they see the abuse she suffered from the Dursleys and take her away again, and this time she wouldn't have to go back to her awful relatives? Maybe Tracey or Ron's family would let her live with one of them for a while.

As the room was growing dark, Rose changed for the night into a nightgown to sleep in. Her head was spinning and her stomach ached with hunger, along with the rest of her body from her uncle's beating. Her body was covered in bruises, her bottom lip swelled with a scabbed over cut while her burns seemed to become more irritated as they healed, the bandages around her legs dirty and stained. Wanting the pain to end and her head to stop spinning Rose laid herself gently down on her bed, her head resting against her lumpy pillow as she fell into an uneasy sleep for the night. And though her sleep took away her physical pain, her mental scarring manifested in her dreams.

In her dream she was on display at a zoo, and there was a card attached to her cage that read UNDERAGE WITCH. Muggles goggled at her through the bars as she lay there starving and weak on a bed of straw as people poked her with sticks. In the crowd she saw Dobby, who she shouted at to help her, begging him to free her from this prison. Dobby only called back, "Rose Potter is safe there, Miss!" and then vanished. But she wasn't safe; she was dying. Then the Dursleys appeared and Dudley rattled the bards of her cage, laughing at her.

"Stop it," Rose whimpered as the rattling of the bars pounded into her already sore head. "Please, just leave me alone." And then she opened her eyes.

Moonlight shone through the bars on her window, giving her room a tiny bit of light. And like her dream someone _was_ goggling her through the bars: a red-haired, freckled-face, blue-eyed someone.

TBC

**Dont forget to review.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**This is the last chapter done my my first Beta Maggie. She was more than my beta, she was also my friend and inspiration. She helped me keep this story with her words and amazing work with each chapter. I'm going to miss her a whole lot, but I have a really good feeling about my new Beta. So don't worry, the fic will go on.  
**  
**I dedicate this chapter to Maggie, for all her hard work and her constant patience and understanding and just for being amazing.  
**

* * *

The Burrow

It was Ron.

"Ron!" Rose breathed; not daring to believe it was really him outside of her window. Jumping off her bed, she ran to the window and opened it so they could talk through the bars, her eyes nearly tearing up at just seeing her friend.

"Ron, how on Earth did you – what the?" and Rose's mouth fell open as she realized exactly what she was seeing in front of her. Ron was leaning out of the back window of an old turquoise car that was parked in _midair. _Grinning from the front seats were Fred and George, Ron's elder twin brothers.

"Alright, Ro?" asked George and Rose shook her head. She wasn't all right, not with Dursleys, at least.

"No, I'm not alright at all. It's horrible." She told them trying not to cry.

"What's been going on?" asked Ron, the light too dark for him to really see her bruised face or the slight swelling of her eye. "Why haven't you been answering my letters? I've asked you to stay with us about twelve times, and I know Tracey has as well. After you didn't reply to her first four letters she started writing to me, asking if you'd spoken to me." Rose couldn't help but smile. Tracey was such a paranoid worry-wart.

"And then Dad came home and said you'd got an official warning for using magic in front of Muggles -"

"It wasn't me, I swear – wait, how did you know?" she said, interrupting him.

"Dad works for the Ministry," Ron answered. "You _know_ we're not supposed to do spells outside of school-"

"I couldn't cast a spell if I wanted to. They locked away all my things including my wand. And you're one to talk, Ron Weasley," Rose said, staring at the floating car he and his brothers were currently occupying.

"You mean this? It doesn't count since we're only borrowing this. It's Dad's, _we _didn't enchant it. But doing magic in front of those Muggles you live with-"

"Did you not just hear me? I told you, they locked away my wand. And the only accidental magic I ever do is making my bloody hair grow!" she snapped, her patience lost. "The Dursleys don't even know about the hover charm. They locked me up because an owl from the Ministry flew into the house when they were having a dinner party," Rose told them.

_'Should I tell them about what Uncle Vernon did to me? Maybe that whale of a man would get punished somehow if people knew how he hit me,' _Rose wondered to herself. In the end, she couldn't keep it a secret; someone had to know, "My uncle _beat _me Ron, I've been locked in this room for a week _starving!_" Her eyes watered, green orbs pleading with him to rescue her.

Ron looked shocked, "That's terrible! We'll get you out of here I promise, Rose. We've come to take you home with us."

Rose wiped at her eyes before her tears could fall as she didn't like to cry in front of people, and right then it stung at her eyes to do so. The only one who'd ever seen her really crying was Tracey. She was just so happy; she was finally being rescued from this nightmare of solitude. "But how? You can't use magic-"

Ron interrupted her, grinning ear to ear, "We don't need to use magic. You forget who I've got with me," he said, still grinning as he jerked his head towards his brothers in the front seat.

"Tie that around the bars," Fred said, throwing the end of a rope to Rose, who didn't hesitate to do as she was told.

"If the Dursleys wake up, my uncle might actually kill me this time," she said to them with a grave voice, the color draining from her face with genuine fear of her Muggle uncle.

"Don't worry, Ro, we won't let them hurt you again. Now stand back," Fred told her, revving the car. Rose did as he said and backed away from the window and into the shadows near Hedwig's cage, who seemed to have realized the importance of the situation and kept herself still and quiet in her cage.

The car revved louder and louder and suddenly, with a crunching noise, the bars were pulled clean off the window to dangle from the rope a few feet off the ground. Panting, Ron hoisted the bars up into the car. Rose listened anxiously through her bedroom door, but there was no sound from her uncle and aunt's bedroom.

_'This is it. I'm really leaving this place. I'm so relieved. Maybe I won't have to come back this time,' _Rose thought, smiling, trying not to cry out of the joy she felt from her rescue.

When the bars were safely in the back seat with Ron, Fred carefully reversed the car as close as possible to Rose's window.

"Get in," Ron said.

"I can't yet, all my Hogwarts stuff is still locked away," she told them.

"Where is it?" the twins asked her.

"Downstairs; locked in the cupboard under the stairs. But I can't get out of the room, they locked me in, remember?" she told them.

"No problem," said George from beside his brother in the front seat. "Move out of the way, Ro."

She did, and the two of them climbed catlike through the window and into Rose's room. Rose had to hand it to the two of them as she watched as George pulled out an ordinary hairpin and started to pick the lock.

"A bunch of wizards think it's a waste of time, knowing this sort of Muggle trick," said Fred quietly, "but we feel that they're skills worth learning, even if they are a bit slow." And then there was a small click and the door swung open.

"We'll get your truck and you grab anything you need from your room and hand it out to Ron," George whispered to her.

"Watch out for the bottom stair, it creaks loudly," Rose whispered back, the twins nodded and soon they had disappeared out onto the dark landing.

Quickly telling Ron to close his eyes and explaining she planned to change her clothes, Rose moved over to her dresser and pulled out the first thing she grabbed. Ron blushed and then did as he was asked. Once finished dressing she quickly slipped on her shoes before starting to hand over her things to Ron.

She made sure to first pass over Hedwig, making sure he was careful with her before passing him her other things out the window. When she'd finished she went to help Fred and George with her trunk up the stairs. As Rose tiptoed down the hall she heard her Uncle Vernon cough in his sleep.

At last the three reached the landing, then carried the trunk through Rose's room to the open window. George was the first to climb back into the car to pull with Ron, while Rose and Fred pushed her trunk in from the bedroom side. Slowly, inch-by-inch, the trunk slid through the window.

Uncle Vernon coughed again from his room.

_'Please don't wake up, please don't wake up, please don't wake up,' _Rose thought as George panted from inside the car with Ron as they pulled.

"Just one more good push, Ro," Fred encouraged her, and as they threw their shoulders against the trunk it slid through the window frame and into the back seat of the car. Rose winced and bit the inside of her cheek as her side flared up with pain from where her uncle had kicked her.

"Okay, lets go," Fred whispered and climbed out of the window and into the car, turning and holding his hand out to Rose to help her. Taking his hand, she climbed off the windowsill, and then she was in the car sitting next to Ron and holding onto him for dear life.

_'I'm free!' _Rose grinned from ear to ear, her eyes misty with tears of joy.

"You boys are my heroes!" Rose laughed, kissing each one of them on the cheek and laughing as Ron wiped his with his sleeve. She rolled down the window, the night air whipping her long auburn hair back, its color darker than the Weasleys' ginger hair. She didn't dare look back at Privet Drive, she didn't want to. She just wished that she could leave that life entirely behind her. Suddenly Hedwig gave a screech from where her cage sat between Rose and Ron.

"Go ahead and let her out, she can fly behind us," Ron said and Fred handed him the hairpin, picking her cage's lock and soon Hedwig was soaring joyfully out of the window, gliding beside them and hooting happily at her own freedom.

"Did they really beat you, Ro?" George asked suddenly, turning around in the front seat to look at her, to really look at her now that the light of the moon was giving him a clearer image of her bruised face.

"Yeah, what's the story? What's been happening? You look awful, I can't believe they hurt you so badly!" said Ron.

"My uncle did. My aunt doesn't approve of him hitting me but he's much too strong for her to really stop him," Rose answered Fred's question.

"That's how I got all these bruises," she said, gesturing to her face and body, her eyes started to water. Ron put his arm around her shoulders in a comforting gesture."I said the word 'magic' once and my uncle slapped me, knocking me down and spilling hot coffee on me. That's why I have these bandages on my legs. They treat me like a slave. I do all the chores, I cook all their meals, pour them their drinks and serve them their food at the table while I'm left with nothing but the scraps from the leftovers... I absolutely hate it there with them. I don't know how long I would have been able to take anymore if you hadn't come," Rose said honestly in a whisper of a voice, not bothering to hide any of it anymore.

_'I never want to see the Dursleys again. Their house could catch fire and I don't think I would care. I hate them so much,' _Rose thought with the darkest of malice and hatred. She then started to tell them about Dobby, the warning the house-elf had given her and the fiasco with the owl from the Ministry and all that happened after that led up to them showing up. They were like knights in shining armor to rescue the princess from her tower.

"Very fishy," Fred said finally after a long, shocked silence.

"Definitely sounds dodgy," George agreed with his twin.

"So he wouldn't even tell you who's supposed to be plotting all this stuff?" George asked her.

"I honestly don't think he could. Like I told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall," she told them and she didn't miss how Fred and George looked at each other.

"Do you think he was lying to me?" Rose asked them.

"Let's put it this way — house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, but they can't usually use it without their master's permission. I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke, maybe. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?" Fred said.

"Draco Malfoy," Ron said and Rose rolled her eyes.

"I don't think it's Draco. I read the letter he sent to me, I really think he wants to be friends, he just doesn't really know how to go about doing so, _nicely, _without being a snobby show off," she explained.

"Are you talking about Lucius Malfoy's son?" George asked them.

"I don't know his father's name, he never mentioned it, but I suppose he is. After all it doesn't seem to be a very common name. Why?" Rose asked him.

"It's just that I've heard Dad talking about him. Apparently he was a big supporter of You-Know-Who," said George.

"And when You-Know-Who disappeared, Lucius Malfoy came back saying that he'd never meant any of it. Load of dung – Dad reckons he was right in You-Know-Who's inner circle," Fred told her, craning around to look at Rose as he spoke.

"I still don't think Draco has anything to do with this," Rose told them, ending conversation on the matter.

"I'm really glad that we came to get you, anyway," said Ron and Rose smiled as she saw his ears tinge pink under the moonlight.

I was getting really worried when you didn't answer of my letters. I thought it was Errol's fault at first-"

"Who's Errol?" Rose interrupted him to ask.

"Our owl. He's ancient, and it wouldn't be the first time he'd collapsed on a delivery. But then I started getting letters from Tracey Davis, asking if I had heard from you and that she had asked you to stay with her a dozen times in her letters but she hadn't received any reply and was just as worried as I was," Ron finished. "I think if I hadn't wrote telling her we decided to come and get you, she would have arrived on your doorstep to take you home with her herself. We'll have to write her right away when we get home so she'll stop bugging me asking about you... She also asked about Fred a lot," Ron said, looking a little annoyed at the memory of Tracey's constant barrage of letters.

"You're driving too far west, Fred," George said, pointing to a compass on the dashboard. Fred twiddled the steering wheel in the right direction they needed to go.

"So, does you dad know that you've got the car?" Rose asked with a smirk, already guessing the answer.

"Er, no, he had to work tonight. Hopefully we'll be able to get it back in the garage without Mum noticing we took it out," Ron said sheepishly.

"And what does your dad do at the Ministry of Magic?" Rose asked with an appropriate curiosity.

"He works in the most _boring _department. The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office," said Ron.

"The _what_?" Rose asked.

"It's all to do with bewitching things that are Muggle-made, you know, just in case they end up back in a Muggle shop or house. For example, last year some old witch died and her tea set was sold to an antique shop. The Muggle woman who bought it, took it home and tried to serve her friends tea with it. It was an absolute disaster – Dad was working overtime for weeks," Ron said exasperatedly.

"A _tea set_? What on Earth happened?" Rose asked, genuinely interested.

"The teapot went berserk and squirted boiling tea all over the place and one man ended up in the hospital with the sugar tongs clamped to his nose. Dad was going absolutely frantic – It's only him and an old warlock called Perkins in the office – and they had to do Memory Charms and all sorts of stuff to cover it up – "

"But your dad – this car – " Rose stuttered and Fred laughed.

"Yeah, Dad's crazy about everything to do with Muggles; our shed's full of Muggle stuff. He takes it apart, puts spells on it, and puts it back together again. If he raided _our _house he'd have to put himself under arrest. It drives Mum mad."

Rose remembered their mum, she had met her when she was first trying to find Platform 9 ¾ , and then Mrs. Weasley had sent her a sweater and fudge last Christmas.

"That's the main road," said George, pointing out through the windshield. "We'll be there in ten minutes... Just as well seeing the sun's starting to rise..." he said as the sky started to become light, a pinkish glow burning along the horizon to the east.

Fred brought the car lower, and Rose saw a dark patchwork of fields and clumps of trees ahead and George told her that they lived a little way outside of the village Ottery St. Catchpole. So lower and lower they went and the end of the radiant red sun was now gleaming through the trees.

"Touchdown!" Fred said as they hit the ground with a slight bump, landing next to a tumbledown garage in a small yard. Sticking her head out the window, Rose got her first sight of the Weasleys' humble abode.

The house looked as if it had once started as a large stone pigpen and extra rooms had been added on until it was several stories high and so crooked it looked ready to fall over. It was possible the reason it was still standing up was because it was being supported by magic. There were at least five chimneys that were perched on the red roof. There was also a lopsided sign in stuck in the earth near the entrance that read, THE BURROW.

Stepping out of the car, Rose jumped when a chicken ran in front of her feet, along with a number of several other fat brown ones running and pecking around the yard. Near the front door lay a jumble of wellington boots, all different sizes.

"It's not much, but it's home," said Ron.

"I think it's absolutely _wonderful,_" Rose told him, smiling as they stood near the car, waiting for Fred and George to get out as well.

"Alright, now we'll go inside and upstairs really quietly," said Fred to them, "and wait for Mum to call us down for breakfast. And then, Ron, you'll come bounding downstairs going 'Mum, look who turned up in the night!' and she'll be so happy to see Ro and no one needs to know we flew the car."

"I don't think that's going to work," Rose said.

"Why not?" Fred and George asked her in unison, and she just pointed behind them towards the house where Mrs. Weasley had just thrown open the door, her eyes landing on her sons and Rose right away.

When the twins turned to see exactly what it was she was pointing at, their faces drained of all color while Ron's turned a sickish green as they watched Mrs. Weasley march across the yard, the chickens scattering in front of her.

Rose was amazed that for such a short, plump and kind-faced woman, it was remarkably terrifying how Mrs. Weasley seemed to turn into a fierce saber-toothed tiger.

"_Ah,_" said Fred.

"Oh, dear," said George.

Mrs. Weasley stopped in front of them, her hands on her hips as she stared at each of her sons who all had guilty expressions on their freckled faces. She was wearing a flowered apron with a wand sticking out of the pocket. And though all of her sons were taller then her, the three boys cowered at the mere presence of their enraged mother.

"Morning, Mum," George said, in what Rose assumed he'd thought to be a jaunty and winning voice.

"Have you any idea how worried I've been?" asked Mrs. Wealey in a deadly quiet voice, like the calm before the storm.

"Sorry, Mum, but we had to get Rose. Those Muggles were-" But Ron couldn't finish as his mother's rage went wild.

"_Beds empty! No note! _Car gone – you could have crashed – I was out of my mind with worry – do you care? Of course not! – Never, as long as I lived – oh, you just wait until your father gets home, we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy –"

"Perfect Percy," Fred had the bravery to mutter.

"YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PERCY'S BOOK!" roared Mrs. Weasley, prodding a finger into Fred's chest. "You could have _died_, you could have been _seen_, you could have lost your father his _job-_"

"Please, Mrs. Weasley, don't be mad at them. They only did it to save me." Rose stepped forward to defend her saviors.

When Mrs. Weasley finally took notice of her, one hand going to her heart the other to her lips as she let out a gasp, taking in the damage to Rose's face. Her cheeks were bruised, a bit swollen under her left eye, and the cut on her bottom lip had reopened. Looking her over completely, Mrs. Weasley saw the dirty bandages around the girl's legs and her eyes welled with tears as she dropped to her knees in front of the child.

"Rose, dear, what happened to you?" she asked, horrified.

"That's what I was trying to tell you, Mum. Those Muggle relatives of hers were hurting her, they'd locked her up in her room and were starving her. There were _bars_ on her window!" Mrs. Weasley nodded to let her sons know she was listening.

"Is this true?" Mrs. Weasley asked Rose, taking her gently by the chin to look in her eyes. Rose nodded. "You poor thing. How could anyone be so cruel to a child?" Standing up, Mrs. Weasley brushed off the skirt of her dress.

"Come on into the house and I'll heal these terrible injuries. Are you hurt anywhere else?" Rose nodded; she had bruises on her torso from where her uncle had kicked her while she was down and many other places on her body. She didn't think she had anything broken though which was probably a miracle after how hard her uncle had hit and kicked her. With a gentle hand on her shoulder, Mrs. Weasley led Rose across the yard and into the house. They entered into a small and cramped kitchen, in which Mrs. Weasley had Rose sit herself down at one of the chairs at the scrubbed table that sat in the middle of the kitchen. As Mrs. Weasley told Ron to get her healing salves, Rose took the time to look around, as she had never been in a Wizarding house before. There was a clock on the wall opposite her, but the strange thing about this clock was that it only had one hand and no numbers. Instead, written around the edge were things like _Time to make tea, Time to feed the chickens _and _You're late. _Books were stacked three deep on the mantle piece, books with titles such as _Charm Your Own Cheese, Enchantment in Baking, _and _One Minute Feasts – It's magic!_

Finally Ron came back, his arms filled with a multitude of vials that he put on the table beside his mother who was working on unraveling the bandages on Rose's legs. After a wave of Mrs. Weasley's wand, breakfast was cooking itself while she tended to Rose.

"Arthur and I have been worried about you, too. In fact just last night we agreed that if you didn't write back to Ron by Friday we would come and get you ourselves. But this, we could never have imagined they were-" She stopped herself, her eyes watering as she started to peal away the bandages. Rose hissed as she peeled the last bit from her skin. Mrs. Weasley tried to keep her composure as she was faced with the severity of Rose's burns. They were becoming infected and Mrs. Weasley kept herself from cursing the Muggles that had done this to such an innocent child. Rose should have been taken to a hospital right away to treat her burns instead of wrapping them up to fester.

Taking out her wand from the pocket of her apron, she cast a spell to first clean the wounds before grabbing one of the bottles that Ron had brought and started to smear the milky colored substance gently across the burns. For a minute she had to ask the boys to leave the room so that Rose could hike her dress up so Mrs. Weasley could treat the burns that were higher up on her lap and the bruised on her torso. Mrs. Weasley kept her composure when she saw the dark black and blue mark that started from Rose's underarm down to her hip from where she had been kicked in the ribs. She was amazed that none of the girl's ribs appeared to be broken. She summoned a roll of bandages that she directed with her wand to wrap themselves securely around Rose's legs before having her sit down once more so she could heal the lesser of her injuries.

"I'm so sorry that we didn't come for you sooner, we should have realized something was wrong-"

"Please, Mrs. Weasley, this isn't your fault."

Mrs. Weasley sniffled, nodded and wiped her eyes quickly before grabbing another bottle, this one of a green colored salve that she rubbed on the bruises and dabbed on the cut on Rose's lip, watching with satisfaction as the cut closed and the bruises began to fade.

"There you go, pretty as a peach again. And in a few days your burns should be completely healed and your sides may ache a little, but I can brew some herbal tea that will help with the pain." Mrs. Weasley smiled as she recapped one of the vials, calling Ron back in to take them away and put them all back, which he did obediently.

Then Mrs. Weasley left her to attend to the breakfast, taking back over as she threw some sausages into a frying pan. In reality she was trying to distract herself from the new knowledge that Rose's relatives were abusing her. She made sure to cook up a wonderful breakfast, and when she was done she made Rose's plate for her. Piling up sausage, bacon and eggs, giving Rose much more than her own children as she encouraged the girl to eat until she couldn't eat anymore.

Rose tried to eat with as much grace and manner as she could while her stomach grumbled loudly and her mouth watered as she started to eat at a slow pace, savoring each bite like it was the first time she had ever tasted food. Real food. With a soft look and sad smile, Mrs. Weasley watched as Rose tried to control herself from digging into her food like a starved savage, while she started to cut the girl some bread and buttered it for her.

"Here you go, dear." Rose thanked Mrs. Weasley and took the plate of bread. "You're welcome, dear."

As Rose was slicing the white of her eggs, there was a sudden diversion from their meal as a small girl in a long nightdress appeared in the kitchen. Her red hair was a mane of short curls similar to Mrs. Weasley's, the fiery color matching that of Ron's and the twins'. When she spotted Rose she gave a squeal and ran out again leaving Rose blinking owlishly after her, wondering if it was something she had done to make the girl run off.

"Ginny. My sister. She's been talking about you all summer," Ron told her in an undertone.

"Yeah, she'll be wanting your autograph, Ro," Fred told her, chuckling with his twin before catching their mother's eye and ducking their heads without another word until all their plates were clean.

Mrs. Weasley finished tending to Rose, and then promptly ordered the boys out into the yard to 'de-gnome' the garden. As the boys whined in protest and complained about how tired they were, Rose perked up in interest, wondering exactly what this 'de-gnoming' would entail. Despite Mrs. Weasley's insistence that she go straight to bed, Rose joined Ron and the twins outside. She was eager to see what would happen, and what a gnome looked like.

The garden was large, with gnarled trees all around the wall, and there were plenty of weeds and the grass needed a cut. There were some plants Rose recognized and some she didn't pouring from every flowerbed. There was also a big green pond that was sure to be full of frogs. Rose thought it looked exactly like a garden should. The Dursleys would have hated it. Rose wondered briefly what they would think when they woke up to let her out to use the bathroom and she was gone, and the cupboard beneath the stairs empty of her things.

Rose jumped when there was a sudden violent scuffling noise and the peony bush shuddered before Ron straightened. "It's just a gnome," Ron told her grimly, holding a small and leathery creature by its large, knobby head that looked almost exactly like a potato. Rose tilted her head at the strange, and rather ugly and mean looking creature.

"Gerrof me! Gerrof me!" the gnome squealed as Ron held it at arms length as it kicked out at him with its horny feet. Ron then grasped it by the ankles and turned it upside down.

"This is what you have to do," he told her, raising the still squealing gnome up above his head as he started to swing it in great circles like a lasso. When he saw the shocked look on Rose's face, he assured her that it didn't hurt them.

"It's just to make them dizzy enough so that they can't find their way back to the gnomeholes," he told her and let go of the gnome's ankles. Rose watched as it flew twenty feet in the air, landing with a thud in the field over the hedge.

"Pitiful. I bet I can get mine beyond that stump!" said Fred, watching as he threw his own gnome. Rose felt a surge of competitiveness and started a search for her own gnome to throw.

Rose joined in with the de-gnoming with relish, and ended up on Fred's shoulders, squealing happily as they all catapulted gnomes here and there over the garden wall.

"They'll be back," Ron said when the large crowd of gnomes in the field started to stand and walk away in a straggling line, their shoulders hunched, disappearing into the hedge on the other side of the field. "They love it here because Dad's too soft with them; he think they're funny..." And just then the front door slammed.

"Dad's home!" George said, and Rose squealed as Fred hurried after his brother into the house with her still riding on his back. When they entered the house Rose was giggling as Fred set her down on wobbly feet, both the twins kissing her cheeks, and ruffling her hair as they thanked her for the help and told her she'd done a great job getting rid of those gnomes.

At the kitchen table, Mr. Weasley sat slumped in his chair with his glasses off and his eyes closed. He was a thin man, with hair as red as his children's. He was wearing long green robes that were dusty and travel-worn. "What a night," he mumbled as his sons took seats around him, groping for the teapot that was out of his reach.

Standing, Rose moved to the cabinets, searching through them until she found clean teacups. Taking one out along with a saucer to place it on, Rose put the cup in front of Mr. Weasley and began to pour him the warm tea.

_'He seems to have had a bad day at work. If they're letting me stay with them, the least I could do is pour the man some tea,' _Rose thought as she continued to pour the tea.

"Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when my back was turned..." When he continued to grope blindly, Rose put the cup in his hands, smiling when he took it and brought it to his lips, taking a long gulp of his tea and sighing.

"Thank you, Molly, dear." Rose giggled.

"That's not Mum, Dad." Ron and the twins laughed. Mr. Weasley finally opened his eyes to blink at his sons in confusion, and then he looked opposite the boys to Rose who still held the teapot in her hands as she poured herself a cup as well, putting a little sugar and honey in her own.

"Who are you? And what happened to your face?" he asked blankly.

"Rose, sir. Rose Potter. And it's a long story," she introduced herself, sitting down and nursing her tea in her hands, smiling pleasantly at him.

"Good lord, are you really? Well it's a pleasure to meet you, Rose. Ron's told us all about you," he said holding out his hand for her to shake, which she politely did.

"The pleasure's all mine," she told him.

"Well aren't you just a charming young lady? I can't imagine how such a lovely thing like you got mingled with my troublesome boys," Mr. Weasley laughed.

"Troublesome they might be, but I'm never bored when I'm with them," she replied before taking a sip of her tea.

Mr. Weasley only nodded. "Yes, it's never a dull day in _The Burrow_," he agreed with her.

"So, did you find anything, Dad?" Fred asked eagerly.

"All I got were a few shrinking door keys and a biting kettle," Mr. Weasley said to his son, followed by a loud yawn. "There was some pretty nasty stuff that wasn't in my department, though. Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some extremely odd ferrets, but that's the Committee on Experimental Charms, thank goodness." He took another gulp of his tea, nearly emptying the cup, and instinctively Rose refilled it, sensing that the man needed it. He thanked her.

"Why would anyone bother making door keys shrink?" Rose asked him, finding herself falling as easily into conversation with the father as she did with his sons.

"Just Muggle-baiting, really," sighed Mr. Weasley. "Sells them a key that just keeps shrinking to nothing so they can never find it when they need it... Of course, it's very hard to convict anyone because no Muggle would admit that their key keeps shrinking – they'll insist they just keep losing it. Bless them, they'll go to ignore magic, even if it's staring them in the face..."

'_Bless them?' _Rose thought with malice and disdain, clutching tightly to her teacup as she sipped her drink. _'I'd rather curse them.'_

"...But the things our lot have taken to enchanting, you wouldn't believe – "

"LIKE CARS, FOR INSTANCE?"

Rose looked up from her tea to see Mrs. Weasley holding a long poker like a sword, pointing it at her husband who stared guilty at his wife.

"C-cars, Molly, dear?" he asked her nervously.

"Yes, Arthur, cars," said Mrs. Weasley, her eyes flashing dangerously. "Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while _really _he was enchanting it to make it_ fly._"

Mr. Weasley gulped, blinking at his wife before finding his voice again. "Well, dear, I think you'll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if – er – he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth... There's a loophole in the law, you'll find... As long as he wasn't _intending _to fly the car, that the car _could _fly wouldn't –"

"Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!" shouted Mrs. Weasley, making her husband and the children in the room cringe. "Just so you could carry on tinkering with all that Muggle rubbish in your shed! And for your information Rose arrived this morning in the car you weren't _intending_ to fly! And that being said, we need to talk." Mrs. Weasely suddenly became much more calmer but no less serious as she glanced at Rose and then back to her husband. "Boys, why don't you go and get Rose's things from the car and bring them up to Ginny's room, she'll be staying with your sister while she's with us." Taking the hint and reading the atmosphere, the twins, Ron and Rose left the house to leave Mr. and Mrs. Weasley too it.

Rose helped retrieve her things from the car, and upon returning to the house they only had to go up to the first landing of the house to get to Ginny's room, which was labeled by a small plaque on the door that said 'GINEVERA'S ROOM'.

Ron knocked on the door, "Ginny, open up, Rose is going to be staying in your room and Mum told us to put her stuff away." The door opened with a creak and Ginny poked her head out shyly, not meeting Rose's eyes as she looked at her brothers, who stared at her with annoyance and impatience until she finally opened the door all the way for them.

Ginny's room was small, smaller than the room Rose had had at the Dursleys'. There was a large bay window on the other side of the room from the door, and the walls were painted pink and decorated by drawings that Ginny had done of her family, and Rose blushed when she saw one drawing of what appeared to be her and Ginny holding hands with the words 'Best Friends' above them.

Walking over to the window, Rose saw that Ginny had a perfect view of the orchid outside. She smiled wide when she saw the familiar spot of white as Hedwig slept in a tree outside.

"Thanks for letting me stay with you in your room," said Rose, feeling like bit of a nuisance for the younger girl.

"I-it's fine. It'll be fun, it's not a bother to me at all." Rose grinned when Ginny's shyness with her started to fade away and the younger girl began to ramble on, pointing out to Rose the things in her room before pushing her brothers out. "Go away, you got to spend time with her all night and this morning! It's my turn now with her." Rose giggled as she watched the boys bend back on Ginny, letting their weight fall on her until they were in one big dog pile on top of her. And though Ginny was complaining and yelling at them, Rose saw the hint of a smile on her face.

TBC

* * *

**This was one of my favorite chapter to write. It shows a darkness in Rose, and why it's there. You'll eventaully come to find, that the Weasley's are what balance Rose's darkness. They fight off her anger, and her hatred, they quickly find themselves in her heart and gaurd it from her dark feelings. They are her sactuary, her normalcy and her comfort. Remeber this, because it's an explanation that will help you understand the choice I make concerning Rose's future and the difference from the oringinal and my fic.  
**

**Thank you for reading, and I welcome _helpful, mature _criticism and reviews. I look forward to reading what you have to say.  
Next chapter will be up shortly and will be in thanks to my new beta, who without I might not have decided to continue.  
**


	4. Chapter 4

Visitors

Life at the Burrow couldn't be more different from life on Privet Drive. While the Dursley's liked everything neat and in order; the Weasley's house burst with the strange and unexpected. As Mr. Weasley had said before, there was never a dull day in the Burrow and Rose had the pleasure and excitement of finding that out her self as she stayed with them. Apparently their was a ghoul in the attic above Ron's bedroom, and whenever it thought that things were too quiet would start to howl and drop pipes.

There were small explosions that came from Fred and George's room that were considered perfectly normal. And Ginny had quickly become less shy as Rose shared her room during her stay. And out of all the oddities what Rose had thought the strangest was that everyone liked her. She was so used to the the way the Dursley's treated her, it came as a great shock when everyone was so kind to her.

Mrs. Weasley had told her husband of how Rose was treated by the Dursley's and didnt need to be pestered by his wife to promise that he would investigate at work and talk to someone at the Ministry in charge of orphaned underage wizards and witches about allowing Rose to leave the Dursley's permanently. Mrs. Weasley tended to fuss over her an awfully lot, be it the state of her stocking or the tangles in her hair and was always forcing a fourth helping on Rose at every meal. Mr. Weasley always insisted that Rose sit near him at the dinner table so he could ask her all sorts of questions about Muggle life, a rather uncomfortable conversation topic for her, but her was careful to keep away from bringing up her sensitive situation of her abuse. He usually focused on sillier questions such as to explain how the postal service worked.

Rose was disappointed when Mr. Weasley came home one day saying that it was far more difficult than he had expected to to make an appointment with the Minister of Magic to discuss the guardianship of Rose. And every night before bed Rose made a wish on a star that she would get to stay with the Weasley's and never have to see the Dursley's again. No matter how much her aunt tried to be kind to her, tried to help her, it wasn't enough and Rose only continued to suffer with them. If Petunia really cared about Rose, she would let her go freely so that she could be happy with people who genuinely cared for her and wanted her.

Rose had made sure the day after she arrived to write Tracey and tell her everything that happened and let her know she was safe. She told her friend everything she had told the Weasley brothers about Dobby and her letters, keeping from her the abuse she had suffered not wanting to worry Tracey anymore then she was. Tracey was in the middle of getting her parents to allow her to visit the Burrow so she could see that Rose was well for herself. Rose replied that she would of course have to ask the Weasley's if it would be alright for her to visit her. It was after all their home and not hers so she couldn't just invite anyone she pleased over to the Burrow.

One morning when Rose was coming down for breakfast with Ginny about a week after she had arrived at the Burrow, their Hogwarts letters arrived via Errol the owl who flew right into the kitchen window with a loud thud that had the Weasley's groaning and Rose jumping in surprise. With a sigh, Mrs. Weasley retrieved the letters from their family owl and passed them around to those they were addressed to.

"Dumbledore already knows your hear, Rose – doesn't miss a trick, that man." Mr. Weasley said, as Rose thanked Mrs. Weasley as she took her letter from the woman, the same following as the woman handed her some toast.

"Morning, Ron" Rose yawned as she took her seat beside the boy.

"Morning" he said, taking his own letter identical to Rose's.

"Here are your letters boys" Mr. Weasley said as the Fred and George ambled it, still in their pajama's as they took their letters from their father before sitting on the other side, as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley sat at the end of the table.

For a few minutes there was only the sound of silence and yawning as they all read read their letters. Same as the letter she received for last year, her letter told her to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross Station on September first. Following those instructions were a list of the new books she would need for her classes.

SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:

_The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 _by Miranda Goshawk

_Break with a Banshee _by Gilderoy Lockhart

_Gadding with Ghouls _by Gilderoy Lockhart

_Holidays with Hags _by Gilderoy Lockhart

_Travels with Trolls _by Gilderoy Lockhart

_Voyages with Vampires _by Gilderoy Lockhart

_Wandering with Werewolves _by Gilderoy Lockhart

_Year with the Yeti _by Gilderoy Lockhart

"You've been told to get all Lockharts books, too!" said Fred who had finished his own letter leaned over the table to pear at Rose's letter. "The new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor must be a fan—bet it's a witch."

"And what's wrong with a witch being our professor, Fred Weasley" Rose asked, putting the other at the end of her glare as she snatched a piece of bacon from his plate, watching him give a shiver.

"No wonder your a Slytherin, Ro, you glare is ice cold" Fred told her. Rose just smiled innocently and took a bite out of the stolen bacon. Sometimes it seemed the Weasley's forgot that she was a Slytherin.

"That lot wont come cheap, Lockharts books are really expensive..." George brought up with a quick look between his parents.

"We'll manage." she said with a tight smile, seeming to put on a brave face in front of her family so they wouldn't know exactly how much it worried her.

"I expect we'll be able to pick up a lot of Ginny's things secondhand." Mrs. Weasley said and Rose looked around Ron at Ginny who sat on his otherside.  
"Are you excited to start your first year?" Rose asked her. Ginny shook her head authentically up and down.

"I bet the hat will put you in Gryffindor just like your brothers." Rose said absently before taking a bite of her eggs off her fork.

"Whats it like in Slytherin?" Ginny asked her and everyone else seemed to go quiet as they looked at her expectantly for her answer, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley sharing a look between one another.

"The lot of them aren't _all_ bad. Like Tracey, and I have a suspicion that Daphnee Greengrass has her soft side, but she just likes to put up a cold front so she doesn't get hurt by others. Tthe same goes for Theodore Nott. Blaise Zabini rarely ever speak and keeps to himself most of the time. I suspect he's just really shy" She answered Ginny with a lot of thought and a smile.

"I think most of us Slytherins are just misunderstood and get frustrated by the house stereotype and how we are labeled, so we start to act as others expect us too." Rose said wisely, drizzling some honey into her tea before stirring it and taking a sip.

Before any one of them could really react or say anything is response to Rose's statement on Slytherin, Percy walked in. He was already dressed, his shiny Hogwarts prefect badge pinned to his sweater vest.

_'What's the point in wearing the badge when he's not even at school yet.' _Rose thought, sharing in the twins irritation of Percy's obsession with his badge and position as a prefect outside of school where his authority did not apply.  
"Morning all," said Percy briskly. "Lovely day." Rose had a new name for Percy that she would tell the Twins later. Perky Percy. How was it possible for anyone to be so happy and refreshed looking in the morning.

He sat down in the only remaining chair that was on the side Fred and George was sitting. The moment he sat back up immodestly and pulled a letter from beneath him.

"It's from Hermione" he told them and handed it over to Ron.

"Oh, I'm so sorry dear I must have dropped it when I took the rest of the letter from Hogwarts" Mrs. Weasley apologized to her youngest son and Rose, knowing that the two were friends with the girl.

"_Finally – _Errol's brought back Hermione's answer. I wrote to her saying that we were going to try and rescue you from the Dursleys. Your so lucky that Hedwig is so quick in her deliveries" Ron said to Rose, and as if on que with her name Hedwig came swooping in to the kitchen through the window and perched herself on Rose's shoulder.  
"Good morning, girl." Rose said sweetly to the owl who nibbled on her ear. Hedwig only stopped until Rose gave her a bit of toast before she flew back out of the kitchen.

"Sorry about that, Hedwig has absolutely no table manners. I blame myself for spoiling her while I was at Hogwarts" Rose said.

Ron ripped open the letter from Hermione and started to read it out loud:

"_Dear Ron, and Rose if you are there,_

"_I hope everything went well and that Rose is okay and that you didnt do anything illegal to get her out, Ron, because that would get Rose into trouble too. I've been Really worried, and if Rose is all right, please let me know at once. _

_Have you also gotten letters from Tracey Davis? She has been writing me constantly asking me about Rose, she very worried, maybe even more so then I. Make sure to write her if she does contact you and let her know how things went after you reply to me."_

"_I'm very busy with schoolwork, of course-"_

"How cane she be busy with schoolwork. We're on vacation! What is wrong with that girl?" Ron said in horror before continuing to read.

"_Me and my parents will be going to London next Wednesday to buy my new books. Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley?"_

"Well, that fits nicely, we can all go and get all of your things then, too" Mrs. Weasley said, starting to clear the table.

"You should tell Tracey as well, Rose, when she arrives today" Mrs. Weasley told Rose who nodded, taking her plate from in front of her. "Until she arrives, what do you all plan to do today?"

Rose, Ron, Fred and George were all planning to go up the hill to a small paddock the Weasleys owned. It was surrounded by tree's so they could practice Quidditch there as long as they didn't fly to high. And when Tracey arrived, Mrs. Weasley would call them back in.

They couldn't use real Quidditch balls of course in case one escaped and flew away and over the village. So instead they threw apples for one another to catch. They all took turns riding Rose's Nimbus Two Thousand that she was happy to share with them. The broom had been given to her by Professor Snape after she had joined the Slytherin Quidditch team as their Seeker.

Five minutes after dinner the four of them were marching up the hill with their broomsticks over their shoulders and Rose was telling Fred and George her new nickname for Percy that she had come up with earlier. In fact before they left the had asked him if he would like to join them but he declined, saying that he was busy. In fact the only time Rose ever saw Percy was at meals, otherwise he seemed to spend all his time locked up in his room.

"Wish I knew what he was up to," Fred said, his mouth turning down in a frown from it's usual grin. "He hasn't been himself since his exam results came; Twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all"

"Ordinary Wizarding Levels" George explained when he saw Rose's confused expression

"Bill got twelve, too. If we're not careful, we'll have another Head Boy in the family. I don't think I could stand the shame" Fred joked.

Bill was the oldest Weasley brother. He and the second oldest had already finished school and left home. Rose had yet the pleasure to meet either of them, but she did know that Charlie was in Romania studying dragons and Bill was in Egypt as a curse breaker for the wizards bank, Gringotts.

"Dunno how Mum and Dad are going to afford all our school things this year. Five sets of Lockharts books! And Ginny needs robes and a wand and everything..." George said after awhile.

"Do you think if I give her money she'll take it" They all stopped and turned to stare at her.

"My parents left me a lot of money, more then I can spend on just myself." The twins shook their heads.

"That's really nice of you, Ro. But Mum's a real proud woman and wouldn't take it. But the thought itself is very generous" George said, he and his twins giving her sad smiles. But Rose was stubborn. She wasn't going to give up just because Fred and George told her too.

* * *

A few hours later Ginny came running up the hill to let Rose know that Tracey had arrived and Mrs. Weasley wanted the all back to clean up before lunch. Rose ran as fast as she could back to the Burrow, throwing open the door and looking around. At the dinner table sat and Tracey's mother Clemence conversing over tea. Rose didn't even see Tracey until she had jumped her, as if appearing from no where, her arms wrapping themselves tightly around her neck in a hug that Rose returned strongly. Then Rose felt something wet on her cheek.

"Tr-Tracey, are you _crying?" _Rose asked her friend.

"We heard what those awful Muggle did to you." Rose sighed, she hadn't wanted Tracey to know about what happened to her. Rose looked to Mrs. Weasley who had a guilty expression on her face but her back was straight, telling her she didn't regret it.

"I thought I was supposed to be the cry baby, Tracey, and you the one to comfort _me_?" Rose said remembering all the nightmares she had, waking up crying and screaming with Tracey sitting on the side of her bed to calm her down each time.

"I am not crying!" She denied, wiping her obviously tear streaked face and underneath her watering eyes.

"Of course not, I'm sure you just got some dust in your eyes or something," Rose rolled her eyes, Tracey just glared at her before her expression softening again.

"I've missed you, Rose" Tracey said softly.

"I've missed you too, Tracey" Rose smiled, pulling her in for a tear free hug.

"Why don't you girls go into the living room for awhile and catch up. Me and Mrs. Davis still have things to discuss." Mrs. Weasley said, smiling at them and Clemence gave her a daughter a look that ordered her to do as Mrs. Weasley told her. Grabbing Rose's hand Tracey pulled her into the other room.

"I honestly don't know what they were thinking when they left _Rose Potter_ of all orphaned children with _Muggles. _Related or not!" Clemence spat with disgust, her french accent thickening in her anger.

"Wizarding family's would have lined up to take her into their home and adopt her. Who ever decided to give her to those Muggle relatives of her certainty weren't lacking in options that's for sure." said Clemence, her tea held tight in her hands.

"I don't know. But me and Arthur would be happy to take her in -on a more permanent basis. My children already see her as friend and a sibling, and my daughter absolutely adores her. Be it she stays with us or another family, there is no way I'm letting her go back to them and face more abuse next summer...She still has some of the bruises." Mrs. Weasley said, starting in a strong promising voice before it quieted and she stared into her tea.

* * *

Sitting on the couch Rose and Tracey say facing one another, telling each other about things they hadn't in their letters to one another.

"You really should send Malfoy a letter. He keeps writing to me asking about you. Though it's obvious he isn't as worried about you the same way I, Ron, or Hermione were when we didn't hear back from you. But it's still awfully annoying" Tracey tells her, examining her nails and picking some dirt from under them.

"I honestly forgot about him. I know he's written at least five letters to me, all with the others that Dobby had intercepted. I suppose it wouldn't be too much harm to write him once before we go back to Hogwarts" Rose tells her, agreeing to write Draco, if not only to get him to leave Tracey alone.

"Speaking of Hogwarts, we're going to Diagon Alley next Wednesday to do our shopping for school and are meeting Hermione there. You should come that day to" Rose told her of their plan, which reminded Rose of another plan that she had.

"That sounds wonderful. I'm sure Mrs. Weasley has already told my mother the same, but I'll make sure to ask again later. And since you couldn't stay with us over the summer, I asked my mother and father if you could come with us when we go to Sweden this Christmas," Tracey said and Rose eyes went wide.

"Your inviting me to go to Sweden with you? Really? Oh, Tracey, I would love to spend Christmas with you and your family" Rose nearly cheered she was so happy. It would be a new and welcome experience for her to visit another country with her friend.

"Great, lets tell my mother" And then Tracey was pulling Rose back into the kitchen.

"Mother, I asked Rose and she said she would love to spend Christmas with us" Tracey said, her face aglow with her smile as she once more entered the kitchen.

"That's wonderful dear. We would be glad to have you with us, Rose. I'll write the headmaster to inform him that we will be taking her with us to Sweden over the winter holiday's once we get home/" Clemence smiled warmly at the pair.

"Oh, isn't that exciting, Rose. I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time together" Mrs. Weasley said as she poured herself another cup of tea just as her Ron, the Twins and Ginny came back.

It didn't go unnoticed by the two mothers in the room when Tracey went as red as a radish when she spotted Fred. The two women shared a look and a smile as they stared between their children knowingly.

"Tracey why are you red. Is it too hot? Are you not feeling well?" Rose asked with worry, her brows furrowed with concern and confusion. Clemence and Mrs. Weasley couldn't help but laugh at Rose naivety as it was obvious that her friend had a bit of crush on Fred. As women who have fallen in love, they could recognize the signs and the look in another girls eyes when she see's a boy she fancies.

"I'm fine." Tracey answers, still staring at an oblivious Fred who was wiping the sweat from his face using his shirt and lifting it up to expose his flat stomach. Tracey blushed harder and averted her eyes.

"You boys get yourselves cleaned up while I start making lunch. Go on now, and don't forget to put your broomsticks away where they belong. Last time your father tripped over one and nearly cracked his skull" She told them, shooing them off upstairs.

"Would you girls like to help me make lunch" Mrs. Weasley asked Rose, Ginny and Tracey who after looking at one another decided their really wasn't much else to do and agreed to help.

After a lunch of sandwiches, tea and biscuits it was time for Tracey and her mother to return home. Rose watched with fascination as Clemence pulled out a pair of rusty scissors from her hand bag.

"Scissors?" She asked, very much confused.

"It's a portkey dear, it's how me and Tracey are going to get home. Do you not know what a portkey is?" Clemence asked and Rose shook her head in answer.

"A portkey is an enchanted item that transports who ever touches it to the specific location that it is enchanted to bring you to." Clemence explained, and Rose mouth made a perfect little 'o' shape. "Now say goodbye, Tracey, and dont forget to thank Mrs. Weasley for having us over and for lunch. We'll see them all again next Wednesday"

Going over to Rose first Tracey gave her friend a long hug before pulling away and thanking Mrs. Weasley for the lovely afternoon.

"Nice seeing you again, Ron, and it was nice meeting you, Ginny. Bye George... bye Fred" Tracey saved Fred for last, saying his name in a breathy and dreamy tone, blushing as he smiled and waved goodbye to her. Walking back to them she waved to them all one last time, saying goodbye and touched the scissors, immediately they almost seemed to be being pulled into the scissors before they both disappeared.

"Why does she always act weird when you two are around?" Rose asked, turning on the twins once Tracey and her mother was gone.

"What can we say," said Fred.

"We cant help it that we're so devilishly handsome" George finished and they both put their hands behind their head and jutted their hips out in front of them is some form of pose that they thought was attractive. Rose and Ginny both rolled their eyes and snorted, while Ron made gagging noises.

* * *

The night before they would be going shopping at Diagon Alley, Rose had gotten up earlier then everyone else but not earlier then Mrs. Weasley and that was the point. She wanted to get Mrs. Weasley alone as she couldn't go through with her plan if the others were around listening. Tiptoeing to her trunk in Ginny's room, Rose took out what she needed before creeping out of the room still in her nightdress and down stairs to the kitchen where Mrs. Weasley was starting to get ready to cook breakfast for the day.

"Mrs. Weasley" The woman turned startled to find anyone up at such an early hour in the morning other then herself.

"Rose, what are you doing up so early? Did you have a nightmare?" She asked concerned. Rose shakes her head.

"I wanted to talk to you." Rose tells her.

"About what, dear?" Rose crossed the room until she's in front of Mrs. Weasley, takes her hand and places what she had taken from her trunk into the woman hand.

"Rose, what-?" Mrs. Weasley looks down to what she had been giving, it was a small pouch the draw string loosened enough that she caught a glimpse of what was inside of it.

"Rose! I cant take this!" And she shoves the bag of galleons back into Rose's hand.

"Yes you can!" and Rose pushes the bag back into Mrs. Weasley hand, holding her own over it so she couldn't give it back and pressed her arm to her, her hand trembling against the force of Mrs. Weasley trying to put it back.

"My parents left me a fortune that will last me my entire life. You need this more then I do, please take it, Mrs. Weasley" She insisted.

"Rose, your parents left this to _you, _no one else and it should be spent on _only _you. I cant accept such an enormous amount of charity and from a _child _no less. We may not have much but we make do and I have my pride. I wont take it!" Rose was not giving up.

"This isn't charity! It's compensation for what you have done for me and still I don't think it enough...Fred, George and Ron rescued me. But _you_ welcomed me without question into your home, accepted me when I've always felt like no family ever would. You healed my injuries and have gone beyond to make me feel comfortable. You have treated me like one of your own children. You have given me something I never thought I would experience, the feeling of family. I can never repay you for that, but I can repay you for the rest of what you have done for me!" A tear dropped from her eye, leaving a trail down her cheek as Mrs. Weasley's own eyes grew misty.

"Please take it. It's just enough for everyone's books and Ginny's robes and wand. And frankly, Mrs. Weasley, I'm not giving you a choice. You _will _take it, or the moment we get to Diagon Alley I'll run off and buy everyone their things before you can even step into a single shop to do so yourself." Mrs. Weasley stared at her long and hard, her hand flexing around the bag of gold she was being offered.

"Please take it, Mrs. Weasley." Rose pleaded one last time and she nearly smiled when the woman caved.

"Just this once I will accept your _gift. _Your a kind, conniving child you are– now I understand why your in Slytherin, the lot of them always do seem to get their way – but still you are kind and very generous." Mrs. Weasley said and Rose just smiled, amused and happy that she had indeed gotten her way.

"But remember it will only be this one time, and no matter what my family does for you in the future, you will never offer such _compensation _again. Am I understood, Rose Potter?" She asked the girl in all seriousness, her eyes glowing with a fire behind them.

"Yes, Mrs. Weasley, I understand. Thank you" Saying that Rose took back her hand, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders and watched as Mrs. Weasley tied the drawstring of the pouch tied and pocketed it in her apron.

"Can I help you with breakfast?" Rose offered since she was already up. She cringed when Mrs. Weasley turned a hard glare on her.

"I think you've _helped_ enough this morning. Go back to bed." Rose didn't argue and did as she was told, making her way back up the stairs and too Ginny's room to get another hour or two before having to wake again for breakfast.

* * *

The next morning, Mrs. Weasley woke them all up early to eat breakfast and get ready before they left for Diagon Alley.

"Your dress is really pretty." Ginny complimented her as they got ready together before breakfast. Rose's dress was a simple brown color, with long sleeves and a colorful floral pattern. She wore gold stalkings underneath with the headband that her aunt had bought her on her head. Everyone was to be dressed when they came down to eat as Mrs. Weasley said they were leaving right after they were all done with breakfast.

"Thank you, Ginny. I like your dress to." Ginny had on a pretty blue dress that brought out her red hair, with cute little crochet flowers. Ginny blushed and thanked her before they made their way together down to the kitchen for breakfast.

After a half a dozen bacon sandwiches each, they pulled on their wizard cloaks. Ginny admired Rose's cloak which was a pretty baby blue with an embroidered bottom of flying birds. The claok was clasped around her shoulders with a silver brooch of a caged bird. When Mrs. Weasley was sure their robes were clasped tightly and the wrinkles smoothed, she took a flowerpot of the mantel piece of the large fireplace of the living room they were now standing in front of.

"We're running low, Arthur. Mrs. Weasley says as she pears into the flower pot.

"We'll have to buy some more today..." she risks a glance at Rose, remembering the event of yesterday morning between them, the bag hanging from her arm a heavier with the weight of the money that she had been forced to take my Rose.

"Ah well, guests first! After you, Rose dear!" Mrs. Weasley expression softening as she hold out the flowerpot to her. Rose looked around at everyone staring at her, waiting.

"Um, what am I supposed to do?" Rose asked looking nervous and embarrassed.

"Rose has never traveled by Floo powder, Mum. Sorry, Rose, I forgot" Ron said.

"Never? Then how did you get to Diagon Alley to by your school things last year?" Asked Mrs. Weasley, taking back to pot.

"I went on the Underground –"

"Really?" Mr. Weasley interrupted, sound very eager to hear more on the Underground. "Were there _escapators?_ How exactly-"

"Please, Arthur, not _now" _Mrs. Weasley and turned to give her husband a look.

"You'll be ok, Ro. Just watch us first." Fred smiled and took a pinch of the glittering powder from inside the flower pot, stepped in front of the fireplace and threw the powder into the flames.

The fire roared and turned emerald green, rising higher then Fred who just stepped right into and Rose wanted to scream until she saw that he wasn't starting to burn. Once he was in the flames he shouted "Diagon Alley!" And the vanished in the fire completely.

"You must speak very clearly, dear" Mrs. Weasley told her as George dipped his hand into the pot before repeating exactly what his twin had just done before him.

"Is that it?" Rose asked, feeling nervous as she looked at the fire.

"Keep your elbows tucked in," Ron advised.

"And you might want to take your glasses off." Percy told her with a knowing look and Rose could only guess that something had happened to his own glasses. Rose nodded and took of her glasses, folding them she slipped them into the mokeskin pouch that hung around her neck that she had bought last year when she had gone shopping for school.

The Mokeskin pouch was a small bag on a drawstring, and only the owner could open and had a magical enchantment on it to allow it to grow to fit what she needed inside of it and shrunk back to it's original size. She could put almost anything it it and used it to carry the shoebox filled with belongings that had once been her mothers along with anything important to her such as personal valuables that had meaning and also her wizard money.

"And keep your eyes closed or the soot will get it them." Mrs. Weasley said as Mr. Weasley helped himself to the Floo powder.

"Don't fidget or you might fall out of the wrong fireplace—" Ron told her.

"But don't panic and get out too early; wait until you see Fed and George." Rose tried hard to remember all the advice she was being given.

_'Speak clearly, dont fidget, keep your elbows tucked in' _Rose repeated the advice in her head.  
Taking a deep breath and trying to steal her nerve, Rose took a pinch of the powder and walked over to the fire, throwing it in to the flames. When it flared up high Rose held her breath and stepped into the flames, her eyes still closed amazed by the way the flames felt like no more then a warm breeze. Feeling more confident she opened her mouth to speak the name only to swallow hot ash immediately.

"D-Dia-gon Alley," she choked out, her hand to her throat as she coughed.

It was such a strange sensation, as though she was being sucked down a giant drain. Their was a roaring in her ears as she spun and she tried to keep her eyes open but the green flames made her feel sick. Then something hard knocked her elbow and she pinned it to her side as she spun and spun, and then it felt like cold hands were slapping her face. Open her eyes she squinted to see a blurred stream of fireplaces, catching glimpses of the rooms beyond them. Rose could feel her sandwiches from earlier churning in her stomach, her face starting to change color as she kept her food down. Closing her eyes she tried to breath, wishing she would stop and then-

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

**Another great job by my beta Villain Girl.  
**

* * *

At Flourish and Blotts

With a grunt and a wince she fell forward on to hard cold stone. She was grateful that she had put her glasses away or she was sure they would have snapped if she had been wearing them when she fell. Standing with a hiss, dizzy and adding to the number of bruises that were just starting to fade, Rose brushed off the soot that she was coated in before taking out her glasses from her pouch around her neck.

Pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, Rose looked around to find herself very much alone, but where she was she didn't know. All she could tell was that she was standing in a stone fireplace in what looked like a large and dimly lit wizards shop only that nothing in here was likely to be on her Hogwarts school list.

Stepping out of the fireplace Rose looked at all the strange and frightening objects littered around the shop. In a glass case nearby was a withered hand on a cushion, a blood-stained pack of cards and a staring glass eye. On the walls hung evil looking masks that frightened her, and there was an assortment of human bones laying on the counter while rusty, spiked instruments hung from the ceiling that looked like they were meant for torturing. Rose didn't care for the place one bit and wished to leave as soon as she could find the exit.

Clutching her cloak tight around her as if it could protect her from anything that might pop out from the dark corners of the shop, Rose moved on silent feet towards the door so that she may enter the street beyond and hopefully find a way back to the Weasley's. But before she got halfway down the door Rose exhaled a breath of relief when she saw a familiar face on the opposite side of the shops window. Draco Malfoy.

Still a little shaken by the frightening shop that she had landed herself in, Rose didn't really think about her actions as she rushed out of the shop and too Draco. The bell of the shops door rang as she pulled it open, and Rose stepped out on to the street turning in Draco's direction with a smile, a little soot still on her cheeks as she approached him with a bit more reserve then she had exiting.

"Draco!" Rose cried, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling back, just happy to find someone that she knew that could possibly help her.

"Potter, what on earth are you doing here? Whats on your face?" Touching her face with her hands, Rose quickly started to wipe away the soot that was there, even shaking some out of her hair.

"I was with the Weasley's...I've never used floo powder before, some of the ash got in my mouth and I don't think I spoke clearly enough...I was so scared, I'm so glad I saw you or I wouldn't know what to do or where to go next" Rose rambled.  
"Where exactly are we?" Rose asked, calmer now as she looked around the street to see an aged witch skulking around. She didn't like the feel of where she was, it seemed so cold and dark despite the time of day.

"Knockturn Alley. Potter, this is my father," and then Rose found herself being introduced to a man with the same pale and pointed face as Draco with cold gray eyes identical to her classmate's. His hair was long and the same pale blonde as his son's.

"Lucius Malfoy. We meet at last, Miss Potter." He extended his hand to her which she took and shook with a polite smile. But instead of releasing her hand, Rose gave a gasp of surprise when he pulled her my her arm close in front of him and used the handle of his cane to brush aside her hair to reveal her scar.

"Forgive me. Your scar is legend. As, of course, is the wizard who gave it to you." Rose couldn't help but jerk out of Mr. Malfoy's grasp.

"You-Know-Who, killed my parents. He was nothing more then a murderer." Rose hissed at him with a glare, her green eyes burning.

"My apology's, it must be very awkward and _painful _for me to mention him to you. On a more pleasant note, my son seems to be quiet smitten with you. I hope you two can get along again this year in Slytherin." he spoke with a lazy drawl similar to Draco's.

"Draco, why don't you and Miss Potter return to Diagon Alley to find your mother. Perhaps you'll come across the Weasley's so that she may rejoin them, I still have some business here." smiling, Draco nodded to his father and took hold of Rose's hand before pulling her along down the street. Expertly Draco led them along the twisting Alley way and into the sunlight and Rose recognized the snow white marble building that was Gringotts Bank in the distance.

"Why did it take you so long to write me back.? You never explained in your letter" Draco said, still holding her hand. So Rose told him, all about the Dursley and Dobby.

"Dobby? That our house-elf" Draco told her and Rose stopped, pulling Draco back with her when he tried to continue walking.

"You sent him! Why? Do you truly hate me that much that you would have your house-elf pull such a nasty prank on me?" Rose's yelled furiously at him.

"No! I didn't make him do it. I don't know why he would behave such a way and visit you. But I promise you he'll be punished." Rose shook her head, she felt that Dobby had punished himself enough the last she saw him.

"Please don't, Draco," Draco just stared at her before nodding his head.

"In fact, don't mention it all to your parents before we can figure out what he meant" Draco looked like he wanted to argue, but after seeing the look in her eyes he gave a sigh and promised to keep in a secret for now.

"Alright. I still can't believe those filthy Muggles dared to hurt you, if I was there I would have cursed them" Rose wasn't sure why Draco was acting so protective of her, but she was quickly distracted from it when she spotted the apothecary.

"Draco, can we stop really quick. I know we're supposed to be finding your mother, and I must get back to the Weasley's but I think we can spare a moment to get potion ingredients," She turned to him hopefully, the thought of brewing positions against at Hogwarts exciting her.

"Of course," And together they entered the shop, and Draco was at last forced to let go of Rose's hand as she shopped. His mother had gotten his potion ingredients early. He watched as Rose bought far more then necessary, but he dared not interrupt her as he saw the glow of joy that she had as she asked the shop owner if the beetle eyes were fresh. When she was done she had jars of horned slugs, eel eyes, salamander blood. Bottles of dried billywig stings, flobberworm mucus, infusion of wormwood, lethe river water, spines of lionfish. Pouches of snake fangs, porcupine quills, sprig of lavender, valerian sprigs, wolfsbane. When she was at last satisfied with her large stock of ingredients, Rose paid for everything and left the shop with Draco.

"Rose! Rose! Over here!" To voices shouted out.

Looking around Rose smiled wide when she saw Tracey and Hermione running down the last steps of Gringotts and down the street towards them. Hermione's bushy and frizzy hair bounced as she ran while Tracey's fair blonde curls flew behind her. Meeting the three girls hugged.

"Have you seen the Weasley's?" Rose asked the two of them.

"Not yet" Tracey told her before taking notice of Draco behind Rose.

"Malfoy." Tracey nodded her acknowledgment.

"Davis." The gesture and greeting was returned coolly. Ignoring Hermione's presence completely.

"Are you coming into Gringotts, Rose?" Hermione asked her.

"As soon as we've found the Weasley's" Said Rose.

"Then you won't have to wait long. Look behind you," Tracey said with a smirk, pointing beyond Rose into the crowded street.

Both Rose and Draco turned to see Ron, Fred, George, Percy, and Mr. Weasley sprinting towards them looking as relieved and happy to find her as she was.

"Hi, Fred" Tracey greeted with a shy smile and blush. "Hey, Tracey"

"Rose," Mr. Weasley panted, catching his breath. "We only hoped that you'd only gone one grate too far..." he told her, running a hand through his balding red hair.

"Molly's been frantic-she's coming now" he said, and Rose smiled. She couldn't only imagine how worried Mrs. Weasley has been.

"What are you doing with, Rose?" Ron asked, glaring at Draco.

"I saw him and his father when I came out in a shop at Knockturn Alley. He took me back to Diagon Alley so that we could find you and his mother while Mr. Malfoy handled some business he had left there" Rose answered innocently.

"Knockturn Alley? What _type _of businessexactly does your father have in such a shady place?" Mr. Weasley asked Draco with clear suspicion towards him.

"As if I would know. Father never tells me anything. He was supposed to be buying me a present. A racing broom," he told Mr. Weasley, turning up his nose at the man and Rose jabbed him in the ribs for being rude.

"Well isn't that nice of him," Mr. Weasley said, clearly forcing his smile as he looked down on the young Malfoy.

Rose didn't even notice Mrs. Weasley or Ginny with her until she was being pressed into 's bosom in a hug as she fretted about her.

"Oh, Rose—oh, my dear—you could have been anywhere—" she gasped for breath and pulled out a large clothed brush, sweeping away all the soot that Rose had missed. When she was done, she put the brush away and took Rose's face in her hands and just looked at her with relief.

"I'll take my leave then, Potter, I still have to find my mother" Draco told her and Rose nodded.

"Ok, thanks again, Draco." With a nod he said goodbye and disappeared into the crowd.

"Was that Draco Malfoy?" Mrs. Weasley asked and Rose nodded, explaining what happened and how she came across Draco and his father.

"Be careful, Rose, the Malfoy's don't have the brightest of reputations" warned as they walked inside of Gringott's.

Mr. Weasley who walked just ahead of them had his attention immediately stolen when he saw Hermione's parents, they were standing nervously at the counter that ran along the great marble hall, waiting for Hermione to introduce them. On the other side of the hall Rose recognized Tracey's mother Clemence with a man she assumed to be Tracey's father.

"Miss Potter, it is so great to finally meet you. My Tracey has spoken so much of you, and my wife has told me of your situation. It's truly horrible what those Muggle's did to you, and you can be rest assured you'll always be welcomed to stay with us" Mr. Davis spoke with a welsh accent.

Mr. Davis was a tall and thick muscled man, clad in a black suit with a red ascot tucked into his vest and a silver pocket watch sticking out of his breast pocket. Clasped to his shoulder with silver buttons was a silk cloak. His hair was an inky black with stubble on his chin, with a strong straight nose and had remarkable kind looking violet eyes. Rose winced when he gripped her hand a bit too tight as he shook it.

"Oh, how terrible of me. I'm so sorry, my dear, my wife and daughter always tell me that I never know my own strength" Mr. Davis apologized looking ready to cry.  
"It's quite alright, it was nothing really." Rose smiled. Just then Mrs. Weasley walked over to them to retrieve Rose so that they could go to their vaults.

"And you must be, Molly? Ianto Davis, it's such a pleasure to meet you. My lovely wife has spoken very highly of you since your meeting. I'm grateful to know that you've been taking such good care of my Tracey's dear friend" Rose hid her giggle behind her hand at how excitable Mr. Davis was, showing that Tracey's personality was inspired by her mothers.

"We do what we can for her. And I'm so sorry but we must go to our vaults now, but once we return we may have more time to chat." Mrs. Weasley said and Mr. Davis apologized for keeping them before letting them leave his company so that they may proceed with their transactions.

"See you soon, Tracey, Hermione!" Rose waved to them before joining the Weasley's in following a goblin that would take them to their underground vaults while Mr. Weasley stayed with Percy to continue to speak with the Granger's.

The vaults were reached by means of small, goblin-driven carts that sped along miniature train tracks through the banks underground tunnels. Rose laughed madly during the entire breakneck journey down to the Weasley's vault. As Mrs. Weasley got out she gave Rose a hard look, the money Rose had given her heavy in her bag. When the Vault opened there was a very small pile of silver sickles and one gold galleon. Mrs. Weasley was careful to wait until her children were looking away to grab just a few sickles and add them to the pouch of galleons that she had. Even when she had given as much gold as she had, Rose still couldn't help but feel guilty when they reached her vault. She made quick work in grabbing a handful of coins and pouring them into the bag of what she had left from last year.

Once back outside on the marble steps, they all separated. Percy muttered something about needing a new quill. Fred and George had spotted their friend from Hogwarts, Lee Jordan and went off with him. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were going to Madame Malkin's for her robes and then to get Ginny her wand and Mr. Weasley was insisting on taking the Grangers off to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink.

"We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks," Said Mrs. Weasley to them before setting off with Ginny.

Rose, Tracey, Ron and Hermione strolled off down the winding street. The bag of gold, silver, and bronze that Rose had was begging to begging to be spent, and though Rose usually one to give in to her own fancies, she didn't mind treating her friends to strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice cream. As they slurped down their ice cream they continued to wander the alley, examining the fascinating show window and going in to buy a few things. Rose had pulled them all in to _Wizeacre's Wizarding Equipment _so that she could buy crystal phials and jars for her potions. When she was done she left with a box of carefully wrapped phials and bottles.

And as Ron stared longingly at a full set of Chudley Canon Robes in the window of _Quality Quidditch Supplies_, Rose, Hermione and Tracey left him to go into the shop next door to buy some ink, parchment and new quills. When they were done Ron was still in front of the window of the Quidditch shop.

"How about I get you a Chudley Canon jumper as thanks for coming and getting me from the Dursley's? Of course I'll have to stop and buy the twins something as well," She smiled at Ron who beamed at her before grabbing her hand and running into the shop to show her which one he wanted.

_'Mrs. Weasley is probably going to be angry with me for buying Ron and the Twins something after giving her all that money for everyone's books and Ginny's first year supplies. But It's worth seeing Ron's smile and to know that I can do something for them' _Rose thought as she handed the clerk the amount for the jumper that Ron was already putting on. It was a perfect fit.

"Your mothers' accent is thick Tracey, did she attend Hogwarts or somewhere else?" Rose as they left the Quidditch shop to visit other stores.

"My mother attended Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in France and grew up there all her life, and my grandparents sent my father all the way to the Durmstrang Institute near Norway and Sweden. But he grew up in Wales when he wasn't at school" She explained.

"Ah" was all Rose could say to the information.

Rose had stopped at_ Eeylops Owl Emporium _to pick up some food and treats for Hedwig. In _Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop_, they found Fred, George and Lee Jordan where Rose bought the twins No-Heat fireworks for a present while they purchased on their own Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start. In a tiny junk shop full of broken wands, lopsided brass scales, and old cloaks covered in potion stains, Rose had the luck to find a treasure. A aqua aura quartz pendant wrapped in silver wire twisted in an attractive pattern. It was simple and perfect for Ginny who's birthday was in august. And as they moved towards the counter so that she could pay for it, they came across Percy sitting in an old chair that looked ready to break, deeply immersed in a small book titled _Prefects Who Gained Power._

"_A study of Hogwarts prefects and their later careers," _Ron read aloud off the back cover of the book. "That sounds _fascinating..."_

"Go away!" Percy snapped at his brother.

"'Course, he's very ambitious, Percy, he's got it all planned out...He wants to be Minister of Magic..." Ron told his friends in an undertone as they left Percy to it with Ginny's gift boxed and wrapped prettily in a little box tied with a bow.

An hour later, they headed for _Flourish and Blotts. _And they were by no means the only ones making their way to the bookshop. As they approached the shop, they saw to their surprise a large crowd of jostling outside the doors, trying to force themselves in. The reason for the mob was proclaimed by a large banned stretched across the upper windows.

GILDEROY LOCKHART

Will be signing copies of his autobiography

_MAGICAL ME_

Today 12:30 p.m. To 4:30 p.m.

"We can actually meet him!" Hermione squealed. "I mean, he's written almost the whole book- list!" Rose couldn't seem to bring herself to be as impressed as Hermione, and it appeared neither could Tracey as she looked as bored as ever.

The crowd seemed to be made up of mostly of witches around Mrs. Weasley's age. There was a harassed looking wizard stood at the door, telling the women to calmly enter the shop not to push and to mind the books.

Being careful of the pile of purchases Rose carried, the four of them squeezed inside. A long line wound right to the back of the shop, where Gilderoy Lockhart was signing his books. The each grabbed a copy of _The Standard Book of Spells Grade 2 _and wormed their way up the line to where the rest of the Weasley's were standing with Mr. and Mrs. Granger and Mr. and Mrs. Davis.

"Oh, there you are, good," Said . She sounded breathless and kept patting her hair. "We'll be able to see him in a minute..."

"Meow!" Rose looked around, trying to find the sound and saw Ginny holding a cage with a ginger kitten in it with honey colored eyes. Hanging from the crook in her arm was a shiny cauldron with books in it.

"Oh, Ginny, you got a cat!" Rose said with a smile when she saw how happy Ginny looked.

"Yes, and it's thanks to you that she was able to get one" Rose looked up and paled under the serious look Mr. Weasley was giving her.

"You know?" said Rose.

"I know." Mr. Weasley nodded.

"Are you mad?" she asked him.

"No, Rose, I'm not mad. What you did was very sweet and helped us supply Ginny with brand new robes, a wand, and books for her very first year at Hogwarts. We are very grateful, but I'm sure that Molly has already let you know that we will not accept such a generous gift again. And I ask that you also don't spoil the others either" Rose nodded.

"Did you have fun with your friends, Tracey?" Mr. Davis asked his daughter.

"Yes, Father, I did." She told him with a smile.

"I'm glad." He said, and bent to kiss her head lovingly, happy that his daughter was able to make friends and enjoy herself. Rose felt a surge of envy as she watched them and tried to distract herself from the feeling my examining one of the shelves close to them for any books that interested her.

Gilderoy Lockhart came slowly, almost dramatically, into view and sat at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own fave, all winking and flashing dazzlingly white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that was an exact match to the color of his eyes.

_'What a narcissistic man, not even Draco is this obnoxious. His books are probably all rubbish'_ Rose thought after taking one look at Lockhart and snorted. Completely unimpressed Rose turned back to the shelf, looking through the books for something of actual interest to her.

As Rose pulled a book out on transfiguration, a short and irritable-looking man danced around taking photographs with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash. The light in Rose's peripheral vision made her temples pulse and head ache as she craved a nice cup of tea and a quiet spot to sit. She didn't like such large crowds, not after the first time Hagrid had taken her into the Leaky Cauldron to get to Diagon Alley and a mob of rabid witches and wizards were practically biting at each other to get at her just to shake her hand. It was suffocating and annoying.

"Out of the way, boy, this if for the _Daily Prophet—_" The photographer snarled at Ron, moving back to get a better shot.

"Ow, your stepping on my foot!" Ron yowled, trying to get his foot out from underneath the other.

Putting the book she was skimming through back in its spot, Rose turned from the shelf and approached Ron and the photographer. She couldn't just let her friend get trampled on after all. It wasn't pleasant getting pushed and stepped on.

"Excuse me, sir, but you're hurting my friend. If you could only just move a little so you'll be off his feet? We'll be sure to give plenty of room after." Rose says, touching the man lightly on the shoulder to get his attention.

When he looks at her with glaring eyes, the corner of his mouth in a sneer and Rose hopes that he doesn't notice her scar and recognize her. He looks at her a little longer and then at Ron who looks like he's ready to deck the man if he didn't get off his foot soon. Looking back to her and her smiling face the man grunts, and moves forward and off of Ron's foot.

"Thank you." She says, and try's to grab for Ron to pull his further back and away to give the man room so no more toes were stepped on.

"It's not even like he's that big of a deal" Ron says, rubbing his foot where the photographer had stepped on. Gilderoy Lockhart apparently heard the comment and looked up.

He saw Ron- and the he saw Rose. He stared long and hard at her before leaping to his feet and shouting loud enough that surely the whole shop must have heard him. "It _can't_ be Rose Potter?"

Rose pales at the cry of her name and she tries to hide behind the Weasley's. She hated being the center of attention, she hates people staring at her. But Lockhart had a seeker on her, and she wouldn't evade him that easily as the crowd parted and even Mrs. Weasley stepped aside so that Lockhart could seize her. He grabs her arm roughly and Rose breath hitches as images of her Uncle doing the same enters her mind, grabbing her so tightly her arm is left with a bruise in the shape of his hand. She scratches at Lockharts hand her, breath quickening. Lockhart quickly seizes her attacking hand in a grip as he shakes it while the photographer is clicking away at his camera, and the flashes are blinding her to the point where her eyes are starting to water and she just wants to escape and hide.

"Please, let me go, I don't like this" She pleads with him, trying to pull back but he just tucks her under his arm, clamping her tightly to him and forcing her to face the crowd not even noticing that she starting to shake.

"Nonsense. Together you and I are worth the front page. Now, nice big smile, Rose" he tells her, ignoring her discomfort.

_'I hate this, I don't like the bright light of the camera, and all those eyes looking at me. I hate this, I hate this. Someone make it stop'_ Rose thinks as her head starts to spin and she feels sick.

"Please, let me go," she pleads in a tiny, breathy voice that Lockhart doesn't hear.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement" His voice seems deafening when he was so close and Rose's vision is starting to swim. She's not sure how much longer she can stand in front of everybody. All the eyes looking at her, like an animal on exhibit in zoo and it wasn't the first time she had felt like this.

"She looks like she going to toss her breakfast" Ron says, observing Rose's face change color.

"She just might. Rose doesn't like to be smothered too much, especially by strangers too much and she hates having everyone's attention on her. It makes her extremely uncomfortable and even nauseous" Tracey explains. Hermione and Ron look from Tracey to upfront at Rose with concern. They hadn't know that about Rose.

"When young Rose here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, she had only wanted to buy my autobiography – which I shall be happy to present her now, free of charge –" The crowd applauds and a thick and heavy book is roughly shoved into Rose's hands. She looks at the smiling, winking face on the cover and feels even sicker.

"She had no idea that she would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, _Magical Me_. She and her schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" And as Rose was about to be presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart, Rose couldn't take it anymore. Lurching forward Rose decorated Gilderoy Lockharts shoes with the ice cream she had earlier.

"Rose!" Mrs. Weasley and the others cried out in concern, running up to her Mrs. Weasley tended to Rose as Mr. Weasley took her books while Lockhart stood shocked and disgusted as he stared down at his expensive dragon hide boots.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to," Rose says weakly to Lockhart who was trying to get back his composure, as Mrs. Weasley wraps her arms gently around her shoulders why she took a handkerchief from her purse and started to clean Rose's mouth.

"We know you didn't, Rose, we should have noticed you looked ill. This is our fault" Mrs. Weasley says to her as she moves to take Rose away from the table.

"Now let's get you some fresh air, it might do you some good."

"But my books-" Rose tried to argue weakly.

"Arthur's getting them all now," He told her, trying to get through the crowd that swarmed them, asking if Rose was alright with concern, fake and real. Finally Fred and George had come around to make a wall around them to help barrel through the crowd and towards the door.

"How is she, Molly?" Mr. Weasley asked when he met up with the close to the door, his arms filled with everyone's books.

"Well, well, well—Arthur Weasley" Rose looked up to see Mr. Malfoy, standing with his hand on Draco's shoulder who was looking at Rose with concern, shocked and worried to see her looking so sickly. Her skin was pale and had a sheen of sweat to it.

"Lucius," said Mr. Malfoy, nodding coldly.

"You look terrible, Potter" Draco said with very little tact or observation.

"Yes, well I feel terrible, Draco. Your such a gentlemen for noticing and pointing it out." Rose said, her voice still breathy and her throat burning and tears still misty.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear." said Mr. Malfoy. "All those raids...I hope they've been paying you overtime?" He reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted a brand new copy of _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_, looking almost surprised by it's perfect condition.

"Apparently they are," Mr. Malfoy said. "It's looks like being a disgrace to the name of wizard is finally paying off" Mr. Weasley flushed darker then Rose had ever seen even Ron turn red.

"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy." Mr. Weasley said.

"Clearly," Said Mr. Malfoy, his blue eyes straying to Mr. and Mrs. Granger and sneered in their direction. "The company you keep, Weasley...and I though your family could sink no lower-"

There was a yowl and loud clang as Ginny's cat and cauldron fell along with the books Mr. Weasley had been holding; Mr. Weasley had thrown himself at Mr. Malfoy, knocking him back into a bookshelf. Dozens of heavy spellbooks came down on their heads.

"Get him, Dad!" Ron and The Twins shouted.

"No, Arthur, No!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked and Rose winced . The shouting and all the movement in front of her was making her dizzy again.

"Now, gentlemen, that's enough-"Suddenly both men were separated in an instant by Mr. Davis who was smiling as cheerful as ever. Mr. Weasley had a cut on his lip and Mr. Malfoy have been hit it the eye by one of Gilderoy's books. "We are examples for our children, yet here are two grown men before me who should be acting civilized and polite, brawling! Now there is a little girl who is ill, and that is where attention should he served instead of wasting your energy embarrassing yourselves in front of a crowded shop and your children." Mr. Davis reprimanded them both.

"Here, girl – take your book – it's likely the nicest that you'll ever have – " Mr. Malfoy said with a glint of malice in his eyes as he thrust Ginny's transfiguration book that he had still been holding at her, her caged kitten being held by her brother, unhurt from its fall.

"Come, Draco!" Mr. Malfoy called his son as he turned to march out of the store.

"Feel better, Potter" Saying that Draco followed his father out.

"You should have ignored him and focused on getting Rose outside" Mr. Davis said to Mr. Weasley as he patted his shoulder and helped him dust himself off.

With eyes widening in realization, Mr. Weasley felt a bit ashamed of himself for forgetting Rose's sickly condition. Looking to his wife he saw the girl tucked safely under her arm as her friends looked at her with worry. Ginny once more had her cat and cauldron of books in her arms and the twins were helping to carry all of Rose's things. Rose was growing paler and her bright green eyes seemed to have dulled a bit.

"Your right, I apologize."

"As you should. A _fine _example for your children and Rose..._brawling _in public..._what _Gilderoy Lockhart must've thought—" Mrs. Weasley berated her husband as they left the shop and entered into the street which seemed empty compared to the crowd still inside of Flourish and Blotts.

"He was pleased, mum" Said Fred. "Didn't you hear him as we were taking Rose away when he finally came to? He was asking the bloke from the _Daily Prophet _how he could work it all into his report, and asked them same when Dad was going at it with Malfoy – Said it was all publicity—"

Rose shook her head, she didn't like Lockhart one bit and Draco's father wasn't her favorite of wizards at the moment either. The two were both arrogant and rude with no consideration to other people. She hated people like that the most. She just hoped that Draco wouldn't follow his father's example, and would treat people better with time. She wouldn't lose hope in him just yet. She was relieved when they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron to join the fireside and she was given a glass of water that helped to sooth her scratchy throat and was followed by some warm soup to fill her and calm her stomach alongside a piece of toast.

Once Rose finished with her small meal, she and the Weasley's would be returning back to the Burrow using Floo Powder. They said good-bye to the Granger's first who would be leaving the pub for the Muggle street on the other side, and then Goodbye to the Davis's who would be returning to their own home by Floo Powder after them.

"Are you sure you can handle it? we wouldn't want you to get sick again. We can all wait a bit longer until your stomach is more settled to return home." Mrs. Weasley fretted over her.

"I'm quite alright now, Mrs. Weasley, I just didn't like being stared at and the lights of the camera and it's smoke made me nauseous is all. I'm fine now" Rose assured her as she took off her glass and put them safely in the mokeskin pouch around her neck before helping herself to the Floo Powder.

TBC

* * *

**Too understand a few things and answer questions you might have, please read:**

**I feel that since Rose never liked such in her face attention( the same way Harry didn't like getting attention), that it wouldn't be surprising that she would develop a bit of a phobia of being the center of attention amongst large groups of people. She's not used to it, and because of her own nightmares and her first encounter being surrounded by so many people her first year in the leaky, along with her abuse by the Dursley's left her just a slightly traumatized.**

**I want you to remember, that despite being a death eater, it makes the Malfoy's less suspicious and put in a better light if they are associated with Rose, the girl-who-lived. That's why Lucius approves and encourages Draco's relationship with Rose, while secretly still on the dark side. **

**Rememember, Rose's generosity is meant to be a fault and not a virtue.**

**I really hope to at least get one review on this chapter seeing as I haven't had any on the last one yet. Reviews are important, because then I get to hear what you think and try to improve on it. It also encourages me and raises my self confidence as a writer.**


	6. Chapter 6

**You might notice that much of the dialogue is from the original books, and so I would like to make it clear that much of it does belong to J.K. so the credit to anything you recognize will no doubt go to her. Just wanted to put this up for some of the dialogue that I did take directly from the books. I will try my best to diverge from it as I go to make it more original and my own.**

The Whomping Willow

The end of the summer came too quickly for Rose's liking. She was looking forward to returning to Hogwarts, but her month at the Burrow had been the happiest of her life. It made her anxious for when Mr. Weasley was finally able to get her a hearing to discuss her safety and the issue of her guardianship, so she no longer would have to return to the Dursley's. Mrs. Weasley had already promised her that even without the hearing she wouldn't let her return to her relatives. It just seemed so odd that every time Mr. Weasley had come close to getting her a hearing something would come up to become a priority and distraction from her case.

On their last evening, Mrs. Weasley conjured up a sumptuous dinner that included all of Rose's favorite foods, ending with a mouth watering treacle pudding for desert. The whole evening they had to try and keep Arnold, the ginger kitten that Ginny had gotten to bring with her to Hogwarts, off the table as it tried to eat their food. Fred and George rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; they filled the kitchen with red and blued stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour. Then it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and bed.

That night before bed, Rose made sure to take out her journal and update it with the events of that day as she did every night. The journal had been a gift from her Aunt Petunia last Christmas but was locked away when she returned with the rest of her things. She had to write down everything that happened in it since she returned from school, since she wasn't able to before. She dated every entry and put in as much detail as she could. When she was done she put her journal back in her mokeskin pouch and hung it up before falling asleep in bed with Ginny as their was only one bed, they had to share.

It took a but of time getting ready the next morning. They were all up at dawn, but somehow they still seemed to have a great deal to do. Mrs. Weasley dashed about in a bad mood looking for spare socks and stockings; People kept colliding on the stairs, half dressed with bits of toast in their hands; and Mr. Weasley nearly broke his neck, tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the car.

Rose couldn't see how it was possible for eight people, six large trunks, two owls, a rat and a cat were going to fit into one small Ford Anglia. That was before Mr. Weasley showed her exactly how everything was going to fit when he opened the trunk to show her how it had bee magically expanded so the luggage fitted easily inside, much like her mokeskin pouch.

When at last they were all in the car, Mrs. Weasley glanced behind her in to the back seat, where Rose, Ron, Fred, George and Percy were all sitting comfortably side by side, and smiled. Ginny turned around in her own seat next to her mother, the front seat having been stretched my magic to resemble a park bench. Around her neck hung the Aqua aura quartz crystal that Rose had gotten her for her birthday. The little girl swore she would treasure it and never take it off. She was so sweet, Rose just wish she had actually done something to deserve her admiration.

Mr. Weasley started up the engine and they trundled out of the yard. Rose turned around to take one at the house with the secure feeling of knowing that she was coming back here again at the end of the school year. At the Burrow with the Weasley's she was wanted and cared for, she actually felt like she had a home, a real home here. Suddenly George shouted that he had forgotten his box of Filibuster fireworks and they stopped the car so he could run back and get them. Five minutes after that they were skidding to a halt as Fred had forgotten his broomstick. They had almost reached the highway when Ginny said she had left her diary. By the time she had clambered back into the car. They were running late and all of their tempers were running high and their patience short.

Mr. Weasley glanced at his wrist watch and then at his wife.

"Molly, dear—"

"_No,_ Arthur—"

"Bu no one would see—this little button here is an Invisibility Booster I installed—tha'd get us up in the air—then we fly above the clouds. We'd be there in ten minutes and no one would be any the wiser—"

"I said_ no,_ Arthur, not in broad daylight—" And her word was finale as the conversation came to an end and Mr. Weasley dared not to argue anymore.

They reached King's Cross station at at a quarter to eleven. Mr. Weasley dashed across the road to get the trolley's for their trunks and the all hurried into the station. To get to the Hogwarts Express and platform nine and three-quarters you had to go through a solid barrier dividing platform nine and ten . What you had to do is simply walk through the barrier, it didn't hurt but it had to be done carefully so that non of the Muggles notice you vanishing.

"Percy first," said Mrs. Weasley, looking nervously at the clock overhead which showed that they only had five minutes to disappear casually through the barrier. Percy strolled leisurely forward and vanished. Mr. Weasley went next; Fred and George followed.

"I'll take Ginny and you two come right after us," Mrs. Weasley told Rose and Ron, grabbing Ginny's hand and setting off. In the blink of an eye they were gone through the barrier.

"We only have a minute, so lets go together" Rose said to Ron. And after making sure Hedwig's cages was safely wedged on top of her trunk and wheeled her trolley around to face the barrier, both she and Ron bent low over the handles of their trolleys and walked purposely toward the barrier, gathering speed. A few feet away from it, they broke into a run and—

CRASH!

Both of their trolley's hit the barrier and bounced backward; Ron's trunk fell off with a loud thud, Rose was knocked down and Hedwig's cage bounced onto the shiny floor causing her to give a loud indignant shriek as people stared.

"What in blazes d'you think your doing?" a guard shouted at them.

"Sorry, lost control of the trolley" Rose gasped, as she stood grasping her ribs as she got up before hobbling over to pick up Hedwig who had started to roll away. The owl was starting to make a such a a scene with her flapping and shrieking that people were starting to mutter things about animal cruelty.

"Why cant we get through?" Rose hissed at Ron.

"I dunno, it's like the gateway sealed itself or something—" Ron said as he patted and pushed at the brick. Rose looked around them nervously at the dozen of curious people staring at them and felt her head getting foggy.

'_Just muggles, stupid muggles. I have to breath and calm down are I'll make even more of scene for us then Hedwig did' _thought Rose.

"We're going to miss the train!" Rose said, looking up at the giant clock with a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach as she watched the hand. Ten seconds...Nine seconds...  
She lined her trolley and touched the barrier and pushed with all she had. The brick remained solid. She felt ready to cry. Three seconds...two seconds...one seconds.

"It's gone, the train leaves exactly at 11 o'clock. We've missed it" Rose said, her voice breaking and her shoulders falling.

"Rose, if we cant get through, what if Mum and Dad cant get back?" Ron asked, clearly worried and starting to panic. Ron then pressed his ear to the cold stone. "Cant hear anything. What're we going to do? We don't know how long it'll take for Mum and Dad to get back to us"

They looked around to see people still staring at them. Rose took a deep breath. She couldn't handle if a crowd started to form and Hedwig wasn't helping with her continuous screeching. Rose pulled out her mokeskin from underneath her jumper and pulled out some treats that she kept for Hedwig and gave her some, her noise immediately desisting as she ate her treats. "Good girl, be quiet now"

"Maybe we should just go and wait by the car, we're drawing to much atten—"  
"Rose, that's it" Ron said, his eyes large and gleaming. "The car!"

"What about it?" Rose asked, not understanding what exactly he was trying to say.

"We can fly the car to Hogwarts!" Ron explained briefly.

"But, Ron, I thought—"

"We're stuck, right? And we've got to get to school, haven't we? And even underage wizards are allowed to use magic if its a real emergency, section nineteen of the Restriction of Thingy—" Rose looked unsure, she had already gotten one letter from the Ministry about underage magic that she didn't even cast herself.

"But your mum and dad..." Rose said, pushing against the barrier again in the vain hope that it would give way. "How will they get home if we take the car?"

"They don't need the car!" Ron said, starting to become impatient. "They know how to Apperate! You know, just vanish and reappear at home! They only use Floo Powder and the car because we're all underage and we're not allowed to Apparate yet..."

"Can you even fly it?" Rose asked. Though she still felt unsure with the whole idea, she couldnt help the rush of excitement she felt at the idea of flying through the sky again in the car while in the back of her mind was the image of a very angry Mrs. Weasley.

"It's no problem," said Ron, turning his trolley to face the exit. "C'mon, lets go. If we hurry we'll be able to follow the Hogwarts Express—"

After looking back at the barrier one last time, Rose turned away from it and followed Ron through the crowd of curious Muggle's out of the station and back onto the the side road where the old Ford Anglia was parked crooked. There was a part of Rose that expected Mrs. Weasley to come marching up to them worried and furious to see what they were doing, as Ron unlocked the cavernous trunk with a few taps from his wand. Together they heaved their luggage back in and put Hedwig and Scabbers in the back seat, and got in the front.

"Rose, check to make sure no one's watching," said Ron, starting the ignition with another tap of his wand. Rose stuck her head out the window: traffic was rumbling along the main road ahead, but their were no cars on their street and no Muggles walking by either.  
"We're good, no ones around" Rose told him and Ron pressed a tiny silver button on the dashboard. The car around them then vanished—and so did they. Rose could hear the hum of the engine and feel the vibrations of the seat beneath her, her glasses on her nose and her hands in her lap, but for all she could see she had just become a pair of eyeballs.

"Then let's go," Ron's voice said from her right. Then the ground and the dirty building on either side began to fall away, dropping out of sight as they rose up in the air and in seconds the whole of London lay smokey and glittering beneath them. It was beautiful.

They were in the air for about two minutes before their was a popping sound and the car, Rose, and Ron reappeared.  
"Uh-oh," Said Ron, jabbing at the Invisibility Booster.

"What do you mean 'uh-oh'?" Rose shouted at him, beginning to panic.

"The Invisibility Booster is faulty-" Ron explained

"Oh, I knew this was a bad idea!" Rose shouted at him as she helped him pummel the button, the car vanishing before flickering back.

"Hold on!" Ron yelled before he slammed his foot on the accelerator; they shot straight into the low, woolly clouds and everything turned dull and foggy.

"Now what?" asked Rose, blinking her green eyes at the solid mass of cloud pressing in on them from all sides.

"We need to find the train so we know what direction to go in," said Ron.

"Dip back down again-quickly-"

They dropped back beneath the clouds, and Rose fought the urge to stick her arm out the window and feel the clouds as they twisted around in their seats, squinting at the ground in search for the train.

"There, I see the tracks!" Rose yelled. "Let's go lower so we can better find the train."

Ron swooped down, passing over the deep green of the hills and came down low so he was flying right along the track itself.  
"Now all we need to do is catch up to the train now that we're on the tracks" Rose smiled, her spirits raised.

"We cant be for behind" Ron said, and not a minute later Rose heard the sound of train.

"Do you hear that?" Rose turned to Ron and asked.

"We must be getting close" Ron grinned, the sound got louder, but they couldnt seem to see the train that should be ahead of them.  
"Wait a minute," Rose said as the whistle of the train roared and Ron's face fell in to a terrible grimace as the two of them turned their heads to look behind them.  
"AAAHHHHH!" They both screamed as they saw the train come up right behind them, so close they could clearly see the red and gold metal placket that read Hogwarts Express.

Ron swerved off of the tracks and out of the way of the train, moving up and above back in to the air. Bit he lost control, the car swerved and spun upside down until it tipped and Rose's door lurched open and she slip out with a scream, her hands grasping out and catching on to the inside handle of the door. Beneath her the train gave another whistle.

"Rose, take my hand!" Ron said, leaning over from his seat, his hand outstretched to her as she kicked the thin air beneath her helplessly. Stretching her arm up she tried to reach for his hand, their fingers only brushing. Kicking her feet harder and trying to lift herself from her hold on the door she finally grabed on to Ron's hand, only for her fingers to slip out of his grasp.

"Hold on!" Ron yelled.

"I'm trying, but your hand sweaty!" Rose screamed back, red faced and scarred as she dangled from the door. Ron took back his hand and wiped it on his sweat before reaching it back out to her. Rose stretched out again, her hand slapping with Ron's a few time until finally her was able to get a grip on her and start to pull her back up and in to the car.

The moment she was back in to the car, Ron straitened it's flying and Rose slammed the door shut, locking it this time. "I think we found the train" she said breathlessly.

"Yeah"

This time they kept themselves high, up above the train, following it through the clouds. The train itself looked liked a scarlet snake as it streaked below along the tracks.

"Due north," Said Ron checking the compass on the dashboard. "We'll fly higher up and, hide above the clouds now we know what direction we need to go and check on the train every half hour or so." Rose nodded before they flew higher up until a minute later they burst out into a blaze of sunlight. It was breath taking. A completely different world. The wheels of the car skimmed the sea of fluffy cloud, the sky was a bright and endless blue under the blinding white sun. "It's so beautiful up here"

"Yea, now all we got to worry about are airplanes" said Ron, admiring for the first time how pretty his friend was as the sunlight streamed in and made her red hair gleam and shine and her green eyes sparkle as she smiled. He felt his cheeks heat up as a blush took over.

"Ron, what is it?" Rose turned, smiling at him, her head tilted to the side as she took in the red coloring his face had taken on. Ron just shook his head, and for a long time they just stared at each other before starting to laugh; and for a long time they couldn't stop.

_'This should be the only way to travel' _Rose thought, as she seemed to be plunged into a fabulous dream. The car hot from the bright sunlight, flying through the sky and past swirls and turrets of snowy cloud with a glove compartment hiding a pack of toffee's that Ron and Rose shared between them.

They checked regularly on the train as the flew farther and farther north, each dip beneath the clouds showing them a different view. London was soon far behind them, replaced by neat green fields that gave way to wide, purplish moors, a great city alive with cars like multicolored ants and villages with tiny toy churches.

Several uneventful hours later, Rose had to admit that some of the fun was beginning to wear off. The toffee's had them extremely thirsty and they had nothing to drink. She and Ron had both taken off their sweaters and Rose's blouse was now sticking to the back of her seat. Their was still a beauty to the clouds, but not Rose was thinking more about the train miles below them with longing knowing she could get an ice-cold pumpkin juice from the trolley that was pushed by a plump witch.

_'Why couldn't we get on to the platform' _Rose thought, annoyed.

"Cant be much further can it?" croaked Ron, hour later still as the sun started to sink into their floor of cloud, staining it a deep magenta. "Ready for another check on the train?"

It was right below them, winding it's way past a snow-capped mountain. It was much darker beneath the canopy of clouds. Ron put his foot down on the accelerator and drove them up again, but as he did the engine began to whine.

Rose and Ron shared a nervous glance.

"It's probably just tired," said Ron. "It's never been this far before..."

And so they pretended not to notice the whining growing louder and louder as the sky became steadily darker. Stars were blossoming in the blackness. Rose pulled her sweater back on, trying to ignore the way the windshield wipers were now waving feebly, as though in protest.

"Not far," said Ron, more to the car than to Rose, "not far now," and her patted the dashboard nervously.

When they flew back beneath the clouds a little while later, they had to squint through the darkness for a landmark they knew.

"_There!_" Rose shouted suddenly, making Ron and Hedwig jump. "Straight ahead!"

Silhouetted on the dark horizon, high on the cliff over the lake, stood the many turrets and towers of Hogwarts castle. And then all of a sudden the car gave a shudder and started to loose speed.

"Come _on_," Ron muttered.

They were over the lake-the castle was right ahead-Ron put his foot down. There was a loud clunk, a splutter, and the engine died completely.

"Uh-oh" Rose really hated 'uh-ohs'.

The nose of the car dropped. They were falling, gathering speed and heading straight for the solid castle wall.

"_Noooooo!_" Ron yelled, swinging the steering wheel around; they missed the dark stone wall by mere inches as the car turned in a great arc, soaring over the dark greenhouses, the vegetable patch, and then over the black lawns, losing altitude all the time.

Ron with one hand still on the steering wheel, took out his wand from his pocket and began to whack the steering wheel and dashboard with it-

"STOP! STOP!" he yelled, but they continued to plummet, the ground flying towards them.

"WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!" Rose shouted, gripping her seat with white knuckles as they continued there descent.

CRUNCH!

With an ear splitting bang of metal on wood, they hit the thick tree trunk and dropped to the ground with a heavy jolt. Steam was billowing from under the crumpled hood; Poor Hedwig was shreiking in terror in the back and Rose ignore the throbbing golf sized lump on her head from where she hit the windshield to turn in her seat and sooth her companion. To her right Ron let out a despairing moan, causing Rose to take her attention from Hedwig and focus her concern on him.

"Are you alright?" she asked him urgently, touching his face with gentle fingertips and trying to find any injuries on him that she could see.

"My wand," Ron said in a shaky voice. "Look at my wand-" and Rose did. It appeared that it had snapped, nearly in two; the tip dangling limply, held on only by a few splinters.

"Your lucky it's not your neck" Rose gave a sigh of relief, believing that his wand could be fixed up at the school.

"AHH!" Rose gave a scream as something his her side of the car with the force of a charging bull, sending her lurching sideways in to Ron just as an equally heavy blow hit the roof.

"What's happen-?" Ron gasped, stopping to stare through the windshield, and Rose looked just in time to see a branch as thick as a python pierce through the center of the windshield and Rose just managed to push off from Ron and on to the other side of the car out of the branches way. The tree that they had hit was attacking them. Its trunk was bent almost double, and it's gnarled boughs were pummeling every inch of the car it could reach..

"Aaargh!" said Ron as another twisted limp of the tree punched a large dent into his door; the windshield was now trembling under a hail of blows from knuckle like twigs and a branch as thick as a battering ram was pounding furiously on the roof, which seemed to be caving-

"Run for it!" Ron shouted, throwing his full weight against his door, but in a second he was knocked backward into Rose lap by a vicuous uppercut from another branch. On instict, Rose wrapped her arms around her friend, bending slightly over him as if to shield him.

"We're done for!" Ron moaned as the ceiling sagged. Then, all of a sudden the floor fo the car started to vibrate as the engine restarted.  
_"Reverse!_" Rose shouted with power, and the car shot backward; the tree was still trying to him them; they could hear it's roots creaking as it nearly ripped itself out of the ground, lashing out at them as they sped out of it's reach.

"That," panted Ron, "Was close. Well done car-" Ron praised the vehicle.

The car however had reached the end pf it's tolerance with the young with and wizard. With two sharp clunks, the doors flew open and Rose felt her seat tip sideways and the next thing she realized was that she was sprawled out on the damp grass. Loud thuds, told her that the car was ejecting their luggage from the trunk; Hedwig's cage flew through the air and burst open; she rose out of it with an angry screech and sped off toward the castle without a backward look. Rose didn't blame her. Then, dented, scratched, and steaming, the car rumbled off into the darkness with it rear lights blazing angrily.

"Come back!" Ron yelled after it, branding his broken wand. "Dad'll kill me!"  
But the car kept driving, disappearing from view with one last snort from the exhaust.

"Can you _believe _our luck?" Ron asked her miserably, bending down to pick up Scabbers. "Of all the tree's we could have hit, we had to go and get one that hit's back." he glances over his shoulder at the ancient tree still flailing it's branches threateningly.

"Come on, we better get up to the school..."Rose said wearily as she to eyes the frightening tree that had tried to kill them.

It hadn't at all been the arrival that they had pictured. But Rose was relieved to be back none the less. Still cold and now bruised, they seized the ends of their trunks and began dragging them up the grassy slope, toward the great oak front doors.

"I think the feast's already started" Ron said, dropping his trunk at the foot of the steps and walked quietly to the brightly lit windows, peering inside. "Rose, come and look-It's the sorting!" Rose rushed over and looked in with Ron.

Innumerable candles were hovering in midair over the four long crowded tables, making the golden plates and goblets sparkle. Overhead, the bewitched ceiling that always reflected the sky outside, sparkled with stars. It was just as much of a magical sight as it had been the very first time Rose had seen it.

Rose could see past the head of the already seated students, a line of scared looking first years just filling in to the hall. Ginny was among them, easily visible because of her vivid Weasley red hair. Meanwhile, Professor McGonagall, a bespectacled witch with her hair in a tight bun was placing the famous Hogwarts Sorting Hat on a stool before the newcomers.

Every year, this aged old hat, patched, frayed and dirty, sorted new students into the four Hogwarts Houses(Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin) Rose remembered exactly one year ago when her own named had been called and the hat was placed on her head and muttered aloud in her ear, giving her the option of Gryffindor or Slyhtherin. The hat had told her, that if in Slyhterin, she could bring change, she could become great and so she decided to be sorted into Slytherin with the hope of making her parents proud when she became a great witch. She didn't realize Slytherin's true, and terrible reputation at the time, still having hope that it wasn't as awful as others had said.

It was worse. Though Rose only had her self to blame really. The Hat gave her a choice, and she chose Slytherin.

Rose's eyes looked past the beyond Professor McGonagall and the sorting hat to where Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, sat watching the Sorting from the staff table, his long silver beard and half moon glasses shining brightly in the candlelight. A few seats down, she saw Gilderoy Lockhart, dressed in aquamarine colored robes. At the end of the long table was Hagrid, big and hairy, drinking deeply from his goblet.  
"I don't see Professor Snape at the staff table..." Rose muttered, sounding close to concerned.

Professor Snape and her had a rough start, but towards the end of the year they had bonded over her mother. Rose had discovered that he had known her when they were school children at Hogwarts and best friends. He wasn't anyone's favorite teacher, and tended to be cruel and sarcastic and disliked almost everyone except the students from his own house, and taught potions.

"Maybe he's ill!" Ron said hopefully.

"Ron!" Rose shouted at him, her tone scolding as she glared at him disapprovingly.

"Or maybe," said a sudden cold voice from behind them "he's waiting to hear why you two didn't arrive on the school train."

Rose spun around, her hair whipping around her face. There in his black robes rippling in the cold wind, stood the intimidating form of Severus Snape. He was a tall, thin man with shoulder-length black hair, a hooked nose and was currently smiling in a way that told Rose and Ron they were in very deep trouble.

"Follow me," they didn't dare to disobey.

"Please, Professor, we can explain-" Rose said as they followed Snape up the steps into the vast entrance hall, lined with blazing torches that filled the hall with light. The delicious scent of the food in the Great Hall teased them, their mouths watering and stomachs rumbling with hunger.

"Silence!" Snape bellowed, and Rose flinched and pressed her lips together tightly as she and Ron continued to follow him down a narrow staircase, leading them away from the warmth and light, and instead down into the familiar passage ways of the dungeons. Halfway down the cold passageway Snape opened a door that lead into his office and ordered them both inside.

The shadowy walls of Snape's office were lined with shelves of large glass jars, in which floated with all manor of strange things that Rose assumed was for the use of potions. The fireplace was dark and empty. After closing the door behind them Snape turned around to face the two.

"So the train isn't good enough for the two of you? Wanted to arrive with a _bang _instead, did you?" he said, speaking in a frighteningly soft voice.

"The barrier at King Cross sealed it's self, we couldn't get through!" Rose spoke quickly so as Professor Snape couldn't interrupt her before she was finished with her sentence. "We had to get to school, the car was the only way to travel here."

"Do you realize the severe consequences of your actions? You were seen!" he hissed, showing them the headline of the Daily Prophet: _FLYING FORD ANGLIA MYSTIFIES MUGGLES. _He then began to read aloud to them: "Two Muggles in London, convinced they saw an older car flying over the Post Office tower...at noon in the Norfolk, Mrs. Angus Fleet, of Peebles, reported to police...Six or seven Muggles in all."

"I believe_ your_ father works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office?" he looked up from the article and asked Ron with a nasty smile. "Dear, dear...his own son..."

Oh no! Rose hadn't thought about what would happen if anyone found out that it had been Mr. Weasley who had bewitched the car. She felt as if she had been walloped right in the stomach. If anyone found out, she might not be allowed to live with the Weasley's. And what would happen to Mr. Weasley?

"I noticed in my search of the grounds, that considerable damage has been done to a very valuable Whomping Willow," Snape went on, leaving Rose with the hope that he would overlook the matter of Mr. Weasley.

"That tree did more damage to _us-" _Ron blurted out.

"_Silence!_" Snape snapped again. "Most unfortunately, you are not in my house to punish you Mr. Weasley, and so your punishment or the decision to expel you does not rest with me. You on the other hand Miss Potter are in my house."  
"Please, Professor, let me explain" Rose begged of him, clasping her hands together in front of herself.

"Do your truly believe that an excuse you could come up with could justify the exposure of our world?" he asked, expecting better from her.

"No, of course not. But I do have explanation, I tried to tell you before but you wont listen!" realizing how disrespectful she was being she flinched and covered her mouth from keeping herself from saying anymore.

"Very well, explain yourself" Snape agreed calmly, crossing his arms and waiting expectantly for her to begin.

Rose then began to explain the events that lead them to taking the car to the school. Starting with how the barrier at the station refused to let them through.

"We had no choice, Professor, we couldn't get on the train so taking the car was the only way to get to school."  
"Why did you not simply send us a letter by owl? I believe you have an owl Miss Potter." Professor Snape said coldly to Rose.

"I—I didnt think-"  
"Clearly" Snape drawled out. "I'm disappointed in you Miss Potter, I thought you far more inteligent." Rose flinched at his words, not wishing to disappoint anyone, especially her own Head of House.

"Now that I have heard what you have said, I will go and retrieve Mr. Weasley's head of house. You'll both wait her and _not touch anything._"

Rose and Ron turned white. Rose now felt incredibly sick. After all, Snape may not have the power to punish Ron but he did have the power to punish her. Would he really expel her? She wondered. And poor Ron. Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house was just as strict as Professor Snape. Neither of them were better off then the other.

Ten minutes later, Snape returned, and sure enough Professor McGonagall was accompanying him. Now, Rose has seen Professor McGonagall angry on a number of occasions, but she had never seen her this mad before. She raised her wand the moment she entered and both Rose and Ron flinched, but Professor McGonagall did not cast a spell of any sort on them but pointed her wand at the empty fireplace, where suddenly flames erupted.

"Sit." she said, and the two backed into the seats near the fire.

"I believe you have already given your explanation to Professor Snape, but I would like to hear it from you as well Mr. Weasley" Ron then launched into an exact repeat of what Rose had said earlier. As he was finishing there was a knock on the office door, and Snape, looking sullen as ever, opened it. There stood in the now opened doorway was the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore.

Rose felt her blood turn cold in her veins. She had never seen Dumbledore look so grave before, and it frightened her. He stared down his crooked nose as him, and Rose couldn't help but shrink into herself.

There was a long moment of silence before Dumbledore spoke. A deafening silence that allowed the shame and embaressement of what they had done to sink even deeper into them. When the silence started to become too much and Rose was about to beg for the headmaster to say something he at last spoke. "Please explain why you did this." Rose almost wished that he had shouted, it would have been better than the disappointment in his voice.

Rose couldn't bring herself to make eye contact, and instead spoke to her feet. She did her best to tell him everything, all except that it was Mr. Weasley who had bewitched the car and explained it in a way that made it out as if Ron had simply stumbled upon the car outside the station by coincidence. She knew of course that Dumbledore would see through her lie right away, but she would take the chance in the hope of protecting Mr. Weasley and her own future with the family. Dumbledore asked no questions concerning the car. When Rose was finished, Dumbledore merely continued to peer at them through his spectacles.

"We'll go and get our stuff," said Ron in a hopeless sort of voice, and Rose felt panic clutch at her heart.

"What on earth are you talking about, Mr. Weasley?" Professor McGonagall barked.

"Well, your going to expel us, aren't you?"said Ron.

_NO! _Rose wanted to shout, she even opened her mouth to do so but no words would sound. The fear of expulsion and what it meant choked her and squeezed down on her heart. What would happen now? Would she return to the Weasley's with Ron or would they send her back to the Dursley's. She shook at the mere thought of being suffering her uncle's tyranny and abuse once more.

"Not today, Mr. Weasley" Rose looked quickly to Dumbledore with a look relief, her tiny figure relaxing from the stiff posture it had gone into do to the stress. "But I must impress on both of you the seriousness of what you have done. I will be writing to both of your families tonight-" something about the Dursley's being called her family had sparked something dark and angry inside of Rose that caused her to snap.

"They are _not _my family. They're _monsters_!" she shouted at them, the room falling silent as the adults in the room looked to her with surprise, her outburst startling them all. "You best just send a second letter to the Weasley's because I'm living with them now. I'll never return to the Dursley's! "

"We will discuss this in private at a later time, Rose" Dumbledore said to her in a calming voice that only seemed to agitate Rose.

"There is nothing to discuss, _Sir. _When the school term ends I will be going home to the Weasley's and never see the Dursley's again. Mrs. Weasley promised."  
"That wasn't a promise she had the right to make I am afraid." he tells her with a sad shake of his head.

"Why? Because she a witch like me? A kind woman who takes care of me, who heals my injuries and comforts me when I'm afraid? I should have never had to grow up with those _muggles_, and I will never forgive the person who left me with them to be locked away and abused by them" she spat, speaking the word 'muggle' as if it was poison on her tongue.

"What do you mean 'abused'?" Rose had almost forgotten the presence of Professor Snape and turned to him, the burning expression that he was showing made the volume of her own emotions all but a tiny flickering flame.

"We'll discus this as a later and far more appropriate time, Severus" Dumbledore pierced him with a strict stare that had the man pushing back his shoulders in rebellious posture but he said no more. "I must now return to the feast, I've got to give out a few notices. Come now, Severus, I believe you will find any punishment that Professor McGongall's decides on appropriate." Dumbledore continued then with a smile, ushering the man out of his own office.

The look Snape gives Rose as he leaves is a forweign one compared to his usual expressions. She dared to assume it might have been concern. Though he must not have been all that worried about her if he was leaving her to face Professor McGongall's wrath.

"It would be best if we took you to the hospital wing, Weasley, you're bleeding."

"Not very much," Ron said with a shrug, wiping the cut over his eye with his sleeve. "Professor, I wanted to watch my sister being Sorted-"

"The Sorting Ceremony is over," Ron slumped in disappointment. "Your sister is also in Gryffindor."  
"Oh, good." Ron smiled, as did Rose. Ginny would make a wonderful Gryffindor, and this way she would also be with her family.

"What will our punishment be, Proffesor?" Rose asked, looking down at her now scuffed shoe's.  
"Detention."

Professore McGonagall raised her wand again and pointed it at Snape's desk. A large plate of sandwiches, two silver goblets, and a jug of iced pumpkin juiced appeared with a pop.

"You will eat in here and then go straight to your dormitory's," she said. "I too must now return to the feast."

When the door closed behind her, Ron let out a long, low whistle.  
"I thought we had it," he said, taking a sandwich.

"Uh huh," Rose agreed halfheartedly, her thoughts and concerns focused on something else entirely. Ron seemed to see right into her head, reading her thoughts.

"Don't worry, Rose, Mum and Dad wont let them take you back to those awful Muggle's. Believe in them," Ron told her, leaning over and patting her hand before grabbing another sandwich.

"Can you believe our luck, though?" Ron said with a moutful of chicken and ham. "Fred and George must've flown that car five or six times and no one Muggle ever saw _them._" he swallowed and took another huge bite while Rose poured herself a drink of the pumpkin juice. "_Why couldn't_ we get through barrier?"

"I don't know, but I have a feeling is has something to do with Dobby?" Rose said, taking a swif of her pumpkin juice.

"The house elf you told us about?" she nodded. "Why on earth would he try so hard to keep you from coming to Hogwarts?"

"That's what worries me the most; his pure desperation to keep me away. What's is he afraid of that will hurt me here?" Ron didn't have the answer, no one but Dobby had the answer.

When the two had eaten as many sandwiches they could (the plate kept refilling itself), they rose and left the office, eventually splitting up to go to their individual houses.

The cold dungeons of Hogwarts were as eerie and silent as ever before. When she finally arrived at the stone wall that would open and lead into the Slytherin dormitory, Rose realized that she wasn't informed of this years password.

"There you are! Where on earth have you been? Why weren't you on the train? I was so worried about you—what were you thinking taking a_ flying car!?_" Turning around Rose saw Tracey dashing towards her.

"Can we skip the lecture for the moment, I'm exhausted. Can you just please tell me this years password?" Rose pleaded. Tracey sighed and shook her head before moving around Rose to stand before the stone wall.  
"Hydra." the stone wall shifted and rotated until it revealed the passage to the common room.

"Not good enough for the train now, are you, Potter?" Draco Malfoy greeted her as she entered. Rose decided to keep her reply short and simple

"The barrier was sealed. We clearly panicked and did what we could to get to school. Now i'm going to bed, goodnight and I will see you in the morning." walking past everyone in the common room, with Tracey at her back, Rose made her way straight for the girls dorm room's. Tomorrow she would have to face everyone's questions tomorrow, but for that night Rose just wanted to sleep.

TBC

**Dumbledore is not a bad guy in this, he just simply has his own opinion on what he thinks is best for Rose and protecting her, he does what he does out of good intention not realizing the harm that he brought upon Rose my placing her with the Dursley's and now he has to think about her future protection.  
**

**Sorry it took so long to update.**

**Review, favorite, follow! Thank you for reading.  
**


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